Clark E. Vincent

3. Consensual and Legal Marital Unions in Costa Rica

MURPHY, Robert F. 1963 On Zen Marxism: Filiation and Alliance. Man 63, Art. 21, pp. 17-19. NEEDHAM, Rodney 1958 The Formal Analysis of Prescriptive Patrilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 14: 199-219. NEEDHAM, Rodney 1962 Structure and Sentiment. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. SCHNEIDER, David M. 1965 Some Muddles in the Models: Or, How the System really Works. In The Relevance of Models for Social Anthropology. Michael Banton, ed., A.S.A. Monographs 1, pp. 25-85. London: Tavistock Publications.

The Value Stretch Hypothesis: Family Size Preferences in a Black Population

Data on the family size preferences and reproductive behavior of 990 black females were examined to determine the utility of Rodmans concept of a “lower-class value stretch” for understanding reproductive goals and behavior. An hypothesized inverse relationship between a measure of the range of acceptable number of children (ANC) and indicators of social class was clearly supported in the case of current social class (income level and education), but not in the case of social class of parents (mothers education). An analysis of this relationship controlling for age, parity, and marital status suggests marital status to be a key control variable, with age exerting some influence. Our findings suggest that the concept of a lower-class value stretch may have utility with respect to family size preferences among black females who have been ever married and who are older.

Motivational Determinants of Family Planning Clinic Attendance

Summary Southern, black, poverty-level, female subjects were classified as Actives, Dropouts, or Never-Beens in regard to attendance at a family-planning clinic. The subjects took a story-telling test designed for lower social class subjects and rated a variety of persons and activities along semantic differential dimensions. Women who had dropped out were significantly lower than the other groups in their needs for achievement and for controlling life events. Actives perceived more difficulty in controlling events. Several significant differences were also found in the semantic differential ratings. The results can be interpreted to yield a consistent set of hypotheses about motivations related to birth control decisions.

Historical and theoretical perspectives: Sex, love, and commitment revisited

Abstract A sociology-of-knowledge perspective is used to examine the interplay among sex, love, and commitment within the context of historical trends and social changes. The implications of qualitative and quantitative differences among love, sex and commitment are discussed in relation to (1) the concept of “multiple selves,” (2) “individual variations in threshold levels,” and (3) the misuse of “ideal types.” Clinical and research efforts to differentiate among sex, love, and commitment need to be balanced by explicit awareness of the tendency to compartmentalize these three areas.

Some Consequences of Illegitimacy in a Sample of Black Women

This research compares southern black women who have had illegitimate births with those who have had only legitimate births, with regard to their attitudes about the desired and ideal number of children, pregnancy, marriage, and abortion. Meaningful differences were found, by legitimacy status, for number of children desired, attitude toward pregnancy, and attitude toward marriage. The analysis suggests that it is the absence of a legal spouse rather than the definition of a birth as illegitimate which exerts the most important effect on these attitudes among the women in our sample.

Characteristics of Black Women in Male- and Female-Headed Households

Recent evidence indicates that approximately 30% of the black households in the United States are headed by women (Price, 1969; Hill, 1971). This figure is nearly three times as great for blacks as it is for whites, but the fact remains that female-headed households are still a clear minority among blacks. Nevertheless, this point is often overlooked and female household headship has been cited as both the cause and the effect of the disadvantaged position of blacks in this country. Although 70% of the black households are not headed by women, the popular conception of the femaleheaded household with all its assumed pathology persists as the stereotype of the black family (Kriesberg, 1970). That myths and biases associated with this point of view appear in the works of social scientists as well as in the public mind has been clearly documented (Billingsley, 1968; Staples, 1971).

Factors associated with utilization of family planning clinics in Costa Rica.

A modified cluster sample of 1498 women aged 15-49 who had experienced at least one pregnancy in areas served by 6 family planning clinics in Costa Rica was studied in 1970 to identify demographic social sexual experience/knowledge and psychological factors related to clinic utilization. Older women who as a group have the highest parity were less likely to be clinic attenders. White women in urban and rural areas had higher rates of attendance. Women with more positive attitudes towards family planning and lower income women were more likely to be clinic attenders. Women more favorable to birth control who have a strong belief in their ability to control their own destiny and who have a more favorable attitude toward the various aspects of family planning were more likely to remain active in the family planning clinics. For all groups the health and medical examination aspects of family planning those items concerned with the fact that clinics are free and that women have to wait too long to be seen showed the highest proportion of women with negative responses. Pregnancy primarily from contraceptive failure was the most important reason for dropping out. The second was health reasons (fear contraceptives will cause cancer or other illnesses) followed by fear of contraception medical examination or the method unsuitable for the respondent. The general results suggest that fears and negative experiences relating to contraceptive failure are more important than the characteristics of the women themselves in predicting clinic dropouts.