BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS - WHICH ONES PREDICT FERTILITY BEHAVIOR IN MARRIED-COUPLES

The published literature on the relationship between behavioral intent ions and fertility behavior exhibits four major problems: inconsistent and confusing use of theoretical constructs, limited use of different types of intentions, use of nonbehavioral outcomes, and failure to ex plore adequately the couple aspects of the intentions/behavior relatio nship. The study reported here addresses these problems by using a the oretical framework that characterizes the psychological/behavioral seq uence leading to a planned conception, three different types of fertil ity intentions, a behavioral outcome variable, and data from 196 marri ed couples with no children and 185 married couples with one child. Da ta analysis results in a simultaneous equation, constrained regression model which indicates that child-timing intentions are the most impor tant predictors of preceptive behavior over a 3-1/2 year period and th at childbearing intentions are next in importance; that behavioral int entions are the final common pathway through which fertility motivatio ns, attitudes, beliefs, and desires affect behavior; that the use of p receptive behavior as an outcome variable improves the explanatory pow er of our models; and that the interaction of couple intentions do not demonstrate greater husband or wife influence over couple preceptive behavior but do demonstrate that disagreement has a delaying effect on the onset of that behavior.