Women's Attitudes toward Family Life and U. S. Population Growth

At the present time, most Americans apparently feel that continued population growth in the United States is a distinct problem. The two national public opinion polls on Americans' views toward their nation's population growth both found that 54 per cent considered the growth rate to be a serious (Kantner, 1968). In a probability sample survey of adult women living in a small city, the current writer (Barnett, 1968b) found that 56 per cent agreed with the statement that America is rapidly reaching a point where she'll have too many people, and this coming overpopulation is one of the greatest threats today to the future social and economic wellbeing of the country [p. 1]. Yet while Americans view population expansion as a problem, they seem significantly less likely to feel the married couple has a responsibility to limit its family size because of the problems (Barnett, 1968a:1). This discrepancy in attitudes exists in spite of the increasing evidence that population growth is impeding increases in the standard of living for American families (Day and Day, 1964) and in spite of the apparently growing concern that continued population growth might actually lower the standard of living. If it is true that Americans consider population growth as a problem which is independent of the immediate situation of the family, then those possessing favorable attitudes toward family life should be no more likely to view population expansion with concern than those not oriented toward

Overpopulation · Political science · Population · Population growth · Sociology · Standard of living · Demography · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law

• Guttman Scaling

  Richard R Clayton, Richard Clayton•The Pacific Sociological Review•1973

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• Fertility and Family Planning in the United States

  Pascal Kidder Whelpton, Arthur A Campbell et al.•Fertility and Family Planning in…•1966

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• U. S. population growth as an abstractly-perceived problem

  Open Access•Larry D Barnett•Demography•1970

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• American Attitudes on Population Policy

  John F Kantner•Studies in Family Planning•1968

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• Fertility and Family Planning in the United States

  Kurt W Back, Pascal K Whelpton et al.•American Sociological Review•1967

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• Too Many Americans

  Charles F Westoff, Lincoln H Day et al.•American Sociological Review•1964

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