THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHILD TIMING - A MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT AND A MODEL

The timing of children during individuals' lives has many important ma crolevel and microlevel effects. This paper presents a theoretical fra mework for understanding an important psychological sequence that affe cts the timing of childbearing by individuals. In the first step of th is sequence, child-timing attitudes and beliefs affect child-timing de sires; in the second step, child-timing desires affect child-timing in tentions. The Child-Timing Questionnaire is a data collection instrume nt designed to measure attitudes and beliefs relevant to child timing. Using this instrument, we constructed four child-timing indices and t ested the two-step framework with data from 187 husbands and 188 wives with no children and 182 husbands and 184 wives with one child. The r esults provide support for the framework and indicate some important s ex and parity differences in the psychology of child timing. The Child -Timing Questionnaire appears to be a reliable, valid instrument; it i s readily adaptable for use with any population in which the timing of children is an important research or service issue.