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Personality and background predictors of a young wife's desired family size
Author(s) -
Haskell Samuel D.,
Handler Leonard
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197707)33:3<755::aid-jclp2270330334>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - psychology , socioeconomic status , personality , feeling , big five personality traits , wife , stepwise regression , extraversion and introversion , alienation , regression analysis , anxiety , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , demography , psychiatry , statistics , population , mathematics , sociology , political science , law
A questionnaire that included 19 personality, socioeconomic, and general background variables was administered to 160 childless Caucasian, Protestant wives of college students to dicover variables that offered promise as predictors of desired family size. Of the sample, 66% wanted two children, and 14% wanted three children. Four variables‐feelings of alienation, father's social class level, level of overt anxiety, and childhood family size‐had a combined multiple correlation of 0.39 with desired family size in a stepwise regression analysis and accounted for almost 15% of the desired family size variance. Results suggest that although desired family size remains difficult to predict, personality factors may be as significant as socioeconomic factors in its prediction.