1. Objectifs

Intentions :
« The analysis presented in this article addresses the impact of individual and extrafamilial experiences of infant and child mortality on nonnumeric responses to survey questions regarding expected completed family size. » (p. 737)

Questions/Hypothèses :
« This article addresses the possibility that uncertainty, stemming from perceptions of infant mortality derived from social interaction, influences the likelihood of nonnumeric response in a small Nepalese community. Previous research has tried to explain nonnumeric response as principally the result of broad and, at times, poorly defined cultural or cognitive factors. The principal question asked here, in contrast, is whether information concerning infant and child mortality that is available to individuals from others in their social networks may lead them to the conclusion that family building is outside their control to some degree. » (p. 738)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
« Data for the analyses come from Timling, a small mountain village in Nepal. They were collected as part of the Tamang Family Research Project (TFRP) by researchers at the University of Michigan and Tribhuvan University in Nepal between June 1987 and January 1988 […]. » (p. 744)
« All individuals in the village older than age 12 were selected for data collection. The analytic sample used in the analyses presented here consists of 77 currently married women who were younger than age 50 at the time of the survey and who answered yes when asked if they wanted more children than they already had. These restrictions were forced by the format of the survey questionnaire, which asked only the question regarding expected family size (which is used to construct the dependent variable) of these women. The complete retrospective marriage and fertility histories for all women that were collected by the TFRP were used to construct measures of intra- and extrafamilial mortality experience. » (pp. 745-746)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

« This article investigates the effects of sociometric network members’ self-reported experiences with infant mortality on nonnumeric responses regarding expected family size among women in a small Nepalese community. The hypotheses tested include (1) that uncertainty about child survival, measured as average infant mortality across social networks, increases the likelihood of a non numeric response and (2) that this effect will be stronger when there is less variance in infant mortality experience within women’s networks. The results suggest that nonnumeric response may be related to uncertainty about mortality derived through social learning. » (p. 737)