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To Have–or Not to Have–Another Child: Family Planning Attitudes, Intentions, and Behavior 1
Author(s) -
VinokurKaplan Diane
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1978.tb00763.x
Subject(s) - normative , psychology , social psychology , function (biology) , theory of reasoned action , theory of planned behavior , normative social influence , developmental psychology , control (management) , philosophy , management , epistemology , evolutionary biology , economics , biology
Two hundred eighty‐two respondents, representing 141 married couples with either one child ( N = 71 couples) or two children ( N = 70 couples), were interviewed about their considerations and intentions regarding whether or not to have another child. Reports of their actual subsequent family planning behavior were obtained 12 months later via a mailed questionnaire. The data was gathered and analyzed according to Fishbein's attitude‐behavior model which stipulates that the individual's actual behavior is a function of one's behavioral intention. This intention, in turn, is determined by two multiple factors: (a) the individual's beliefs about the consequences of performing the behavior multiplied by his/her evaluation of those consequences, and (b) one's normative beliefs multiplied by one's motivation to comply with the perceived norms. The results provided substantial support for the model; both behavioral intention and actual behavior were successfully predicted from the attitudinal and normative components of the model. It was also shown that the behavioral intention mediates the relationship between the model's attitudinal and normative components and actual behavior.