DETERMINANTS OF CONTRACEPTIVE USE IN MOROCCO - STOPPING BEHAVIOR IN TRADITIONAL POPULATIONS

The determinants of modern contraceptive use in traditional population s are analysed in married women aged 30-44 living in the province of M arrakech (Morocco). Women who have never used contraception have small er family sizes than those who do: the number of live children (or liv e births) is the variable with maximum predictive power on contracepti ve use, while child mortality is the main inhibiting factor. The proba bility of contraceptive use increases with female age at marriage and decreases with the woman's age, indicating a generational change in re productive behaviour. The socioeconomic variables education, employmen t and residence, have no significant independent predictive character on contraceptive use, although the interaction between education and r esidence does. The paper evaluates the hypothesis that traditional pop ulations in the initial phase of their demographic transition resort t o modern contraception in order to stop childbearing, when they have r eached a desired number of children, rather than to space births or re duce their fertility.