Factors affecting number of Children everborn in ever-married women age 15-49 years in Kanchanaburi

Abstract

With great concern over the development prospects of the nation, the government in the late 1950s adopted an antinatalist population policy. The dramatic drop in fertility (about 60 percent within a period of 25 years) gives rise to the question: what are the underlying causes of this change? It had been assumed at aggregate level that urbanization and modernization leading to socioeconomic and demographic changes played a major role in explaining the rapid pace and profound nature of fertility changes. This study examines, childbearing in Kanchanaburi project area to identify the factors, which have affect on number of children everborn. The study is based on investigating secondary data from baseline survey 2000, Kachanaburi project of IPSR, Mahidol University, which is supported by Wellcome Trust. The factors affecting the number of children everborn of a total of 8,263 ever-married women of reproductive age were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. The average number of children everborn was two. Most of the women resided in rural areas and most of them were over 30. Their average educational length was five years and half of the sample was involved with agricultural work. The average age at first marriage was 20 years. Almost half of the sample got married below age 19 and entered into early motherhood. It was evident from the study that 38 percent of the sample had a history of teenage pregnancy. Considering birth order, it was found that married women who were less educated and got married early gave birth to more children compared with those women who were more educated and married later. Moreover, the women involved with agricultural work had more children compared with non-agrobased and unemployed women. From the multivariate analysis, it was found that demographic factor, age, age at first marriage and contraceptive practice, and socioeconomic factors, education, income, place of residence and community participation have a significant effect on number of children everborn. The predictor variables can explain a 39 percent variation in number of children everborn. Findings strongly suggest that, in the project area, at the individual level demographic and socioeconomic factors have a significant effect on number of children everborn and small families were preferred. But the pattern of childbearing firmly brought to light the issue of adolescent pregnancy. So, adolescent reproductive health programmes should be introduced in order to reduce early pregnancies and their consequence. Specific focus should be given to contraceptive choice among the married women. In order to fully understand women's reproductive intention, future research needs to be focused on factors affecting the desire number of children.