Kurt W. Back

The family and population control : a Puerto Rican experiment in social change

888 families participated in a survey on the family and population control. As of 1953 the population size of Puerto Rico was 2267000 with a crude birth rate of 37.5 infant mortality rate of 65.7 and an average completed family size of 7 among rural and 1.7 among urban women. For the project described the following steps were taken: 1) transposition of the problem of the islands population increase into family terms 2) selecting a conceptual frame of reference 3) selecting a population stratum where the action problem was greatest and where the variables of economic status were minimal (the lower educational class was used) and 4) using the stages of exploration theory and observations to come up with a hypothesis. 3 types of families were studied the jibaro family the rural laborer family and the urban laborer family. The jibaro family is a rural family where the male is undisputed head of the household. Some findings are: 1) ideal family size was 2-3 2) evidence suggests that current preferences are consequences rather than causes of family size 3) both intensity of attitude and preference for the large family at marriage are markedly related to the incidence of sterilization and 4) the machismo attitude is concentrated in marginal age groups and shows no relation to desire for children or achieved family size. At least 40% of all Puerto Rican families have had some experience with contraception with incidence differentially distributed by residence and education. The most popular method is female sterilization (50% of all methods currently in use). For a Catholic population use of rhythm and abstinence is low. The authors present 2 typologies reflecting urbanity and familism and using the principles of property space and case grouping. The typologies are empirically interrelated with a rank-order correlation of 0.89 which is accounted for by the sharing of common life experiences and values. Some conclusions are: 1) family planning in Puerto Rico is neither hindered nor helped by institutional patterns and adherence to cultural norms and 2) knowledge of modern contraceptive methods comes late in marriage and even sterilization is performed after so many births that it does little to affect family size. In educational experiments it was found that groups did respond to promotion of contraception with as many as 50% of non-users beginning to use methods. What is needed are motivations favorable to small family size education about contraception and adequate family organization.

Population Control in Puerto Rico: The Formal and Informal Framework

A review of the history of birth control in Puerto Rico reveals that while contraception is legal it is not strongly supported either by the government or by society. Thus changes in the birth rate will depend in large measure on the attitudes and information of individuals and within families. The level of information about contraception is high with only 5% or less claiming no knowledge. However 25% of the women had learned about their first birth control method after 3 pregnancies although 90% of the men knew at least 1 method before marriage. Information about birth control is available through health clinics but it is only made available to those who show interest. Religious sanctions against birth control are largely ineffective in part because of the low influence of the Catholic Church. Social mores favoring large families are not as strong as was once thought. With the decline of the rural population children are no longer the economic asset they once were. Aspirations for their children have increased so that the ability to provide for ones children becomes more important. While many men still approve of the idea of machismo studies show that these men do not desire large families. In a study of ideal family size in 14 countries Puerto Rico with a stated ideal of 2 to 3 children was next to the lowest. Sterilization as a birth control method is very popular in Puerto Rico. However the effect of the many sterilizations is limited because in 1954 a majority of the women who under went the operation did so after their fourth pregnancy.) Changes in the birthrate the authors feel will depend on the use of nonsurgical methods. Without institutional support for birth control lack of consistent use of the chosen tecnhiques seems to be a major problem. Young well-educated urban families and nonrestrictive families where the wife enjoys a great deal of freedom seem most able to maintain consistency. For the future 2 types of educational programs seem to be needed: first a program to awaken interest in family planning and second a program of reinforcement and commitment to insure continued use.

Family Structure and Fertility in Puerto Rico

This is an interim report of a program of social research designed to aid the Puerto Rican people to come to grips with their baffling problem of population control. The atmosphere in Puerto Rico is particularly favorable for joining research and action planning. Numerous government agencies employ social scientists in their research divisions. The Governor and his cabinet keep in close touch with the research programs of the University of Puerto Rico looking for possible solutions to their most vexing problems. Given the problem of increasing population pressure in Puerto Rico it was therefore no accident that the Social Science Research Center of the University included among its programs of research the study of population dynamics in the island. (excerpt)

Interviewer Effect on Scale Reproducibility

IN administering Guttman scales it is assumed that acceptable scales measure unidimensional traits and that deviations from perfect reproducibility are caused by some peculiarity of the situation. If the scale is self-administered, the disturbance can be charged almost wholly to the respondent. But if the scale is administered in the course of an interview, then the deviation from perfect reproducibility may be due also to the interviewer. We explore here three questions concerning this type of interviewer effect:

The Control of Human Fertility in Jamaica.

This classic study of the early use of birth control in Jamaica was based on interviews conducted in 1956 with 1359 lower class women aged 14-40 who were currently in unions. 440 interviews were carried out in Kingston 215 in towns and 704 in rural areas. The questionnaires covered background demographic information on the respondents attitudes toward family size marital factors birth control fertility history and some control questions. The average respondent was 28 years old with 3.3 pregnancies and 2.5 living children. 29% were married 44% had common-law husbands and the remainder had regular sexual relations but did not reside with their partners. The average respondent had her 1st sexual union at age 16-17 but 1/4 started at 14. About 1/4 were working for pay and another 1/3 had done so in the past year. Close to 40% were in domestic work. 85% of the respondents mates were employed. Respondents on average had reached the 4th standard in elementary school. The analysis considered 3 problems: fertility control the influence of fertility on factors other than fertility control and an experimental program for fertility control. The analysis of fertility control focused on the degree of readiness of the population for contraception considering attitudes toward family size knowledge of birth control and attitudes toward birth control. Each aspect of fertility control was examined in relation to such demographic variables and to the other aspects. The analysis of differential fertility indicated that marital status and residence were the main factors responsible for the considerable variations in fertility levels. The experimental program for fertility control involved examining the degree of change in attitudes related to fertility control produced by pamphlets group meetings and case visits. A general conclusion of the work was that programs promoting the use of contraception are feasible in Jamaica and probably in similar countries.

Manner of Original Presentation and Subsequent Communication

Studies of spread of rumors have indicated two necessary conditions for spontaneous communication to occur: motivation to communicate and the existence of available channels. Theoretical development of the former has treated the basis of the need to communicate, the type of person most likely to be reached, and the extent of spread of different rumors, while the study of communication channels has concerned itself with the analysis of sociometric and similar networks. A number of hypotheses on spread of communication have been tested and verified. Those which concern us here most are the following ( 2, 3, 4, 6 ) : ( a ) Persons who will originate communications are likely to be those whose behavior has been modified and who want social perception to be modified in the same way. ( b ) Persons who are most likely to receive communication are those whose behavior would be influenced by the content, either being in a position to use it, or having views of a type such that the content can produce marked changes. (c) Communication is most likely to occur along preestablished channels, as for instance defined by friendship patterns or work contacts. Combining these statements we can say that, given knowledge of a new event, a person will talk about it either to the persons with whom he usually talks or to those for whom the information is particularly relevant. In the former case we have the basis of the similarity of knowledge of group members, in the latter the way in which persons gather enough data for decisions and behavior changes. The distinction between the structural and dynamic bases of communication is advantageous conceptually. However, of necessity, both are present in an actual situation, and their interplay will determine the communications which occur. It is possible that under different circumstances one or the other will be more important. Intuitively we would expect this from varying content, but other characteristics of the information may be important in this regard. In the present study the manner in which a person receives the new information is shown to influence the basis for the further transmission.