Fertility Limitation and Child Schooling in Ouagadougou

Selective Fertility or Resource Dilution

Bibliographic Data

ID10797386
AuthorsMariam Bougma (0000-0001-9598-8709, Doctoral candidate and Thomas K. LeGrand is Professor of Demography, Department of Demography University of Montreal 3150 rue Jean‐Brillant Montréal (Québec) Canada H3T 1N8, corresponding author), Moussa Bougma, Thomas Legrand (0000-0002-5544-0703, Université de Montréal), Thomas K Legrand (Doctoral candidate and Thomas K. LeGrand is Professor of Demography, Department of Demography University of Montreal 3150 rue Jean‐Brillant Montréal (Québec) Canada H3T 1N8), Jean‐françois Kobiané (Associate Professor of Demography University of Ouagadougou Burkina Faso)
Year2015
Volume46
Issue2
Pages177-199
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueStudies in Family Planning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-3665 • E-ISSN: 1728-4465
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1728-4465.2015.00023.x
PMID26059989
OpenAlexW2123620984
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited50

Using original data collected in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, this study investigates evidence for the competing theories that fertility reductions increase children's education through either the quantity–quality tradeoff (intentionally choosing smaller families to make greater investments in education and other indicators of child quality) or resource dilution (having more children reduces resources available per child, regardless of intentionality of family size). The results provide evidence for both hypotheses: children having four or fewer siblings were significantly more likely to be enrolled in school if their mothers had intentionally stopped childbearing relative to those whose mothers wanted more children but whose childbearing was limited by subfecundity. The difference between intentional and unintentional family limitation was not significant for parities greater than five. In addition, the relationship between number of siblings and their schooling is negative, regardless of the intentionality of family‐size limitation, but the strength of this negative relationship is approximately twice as high among children whose mothers intentionally limited fertility (reflecting both selection and dilution effects) than among children whose mothers were subfecund (reflecting the pure dilution effect)

Developmental psychology · Family planning · Fertility · Population · Research methodology · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Global Maternal and Child Health · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology

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