Studied fertility control among Puerto Rican women in Hartford, Connecticut, utilizing data gathered from structured interviews. Found that sterilization is the overwhelming preference in this community and that number of children--rather than age or availability of accurate information--is usually the factor that precipitates the decision to…

How do families influence the ability of children? Cognitive skills have been shown to be a strong predictor of educational attainment and future labor market success; as a result, understanding the determinants of cognitive skills can lead to a better understanding of children's long run outcomes. This paper uses a large dataset on the male…

Using data from the American Time Use Survey, I find that a first-born child receives 20-30 more minutes of quality time each day with his or her parent than a second-born child of the same age from a similar family. The birth-order difference results from parents giving roughly equal time to each child at any point in time while the amount of…

Examined whether elderly-headed households live in dwellings too large for their needs. Demonstrates that most elderly households do not underutilize housing space. When homes of the elderly are on the market, new occupants include a wide range of household types, not just younger, larger families. (NRB)

Investigated the relationship between birth order, family size, and intelligence quotient (IQ), evaluating sibling data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and comparing results with those from other studies using within-family data. Results indicated that although low IQ parents were making large families, large families were not…

One-child households have doubled over the last two decades making it one of the fastest growing family units in America. The author aids families in understanding the common traits of many adult "onlies"--like shyness, perfection, and intolerance--so that they can better prepare for potential outcomes. He also celebrates the positive qualities of…

The present study investigated demographic differences in school readiness within Jordan, a particularly interesting context because of widespread national reform currently sweeping the education system in Jordan. Teacher reports and researcher direct assessments of the school readiness of a national sample of 4681 Jordanian first grade children…

Investigates relationships between family structure variables and 17 measures describing children's intellectual, psychosocial, and physical growth. Subjects were a 10 percent random sample of a Danish cohort consisting of children born in a Copenhagen hospital between September 1959 and December 1961; 857 subjects were followed to age 19.…

Identifies difficulties in the task of finding the genes involved in causing autism, such as the unknown mechanism of inheritance, small size of families with an autistic child, the rarity of parent-child pairs, and the large number of genes that may be involved. Several strategies for finding relevant genes are discussed. (Author/DB)

Resource dilution model suggests that as the number of children increases, parental resources for each child decline. Assesses whether resource dilution could explain the effect of siblings on intellectual development tests. Identifies flaws in recent critiques of this position, discussing it as an explanation for why children with few siblings…

This article presents a comparative study in which social indicators were employed as a means to examine differences in living conditions and family and children outcomes on a local level. The study obtained household-level data on the well-being of children and families in two cities: New York (NYC) and Tel Aviv (TLV). Data were collected using…

Recent data have shown that children of immigrant noncitizens experience more persistent and higher levels of food insecurity than the children of citizens following welfare reform. However, little is known about the range of factors that might explain different rates of food insecurity in the different populations. In this study, the authors used…

Fertility rates have fallen dramatically around the world. In some countries, there are no longer enough children being born to replace adult populations. The disappearance of children is a matter of concern matched only by fears that childhood is becoming too structured or not structured enough, too short or too long, or just simply too different…

Wealth inequality is among the most extreme forms of stratification in the United States, and upward wealth mobility is not common. Yet mobility is possible, and this paper takes advantage of trends among a unique group to explore the processes that generate mobility. I show that non-Hispanic whites raised in Roman Catholic families have been…

This bibliography contains references for materials related to birth planning decisions. It includes items concerned solely with the decision of whether or not to become a parent, as well as books and articles on careers and parenthood, family size, health and pregnancy, and the cost of having and raising children. The bibliography contains 42…