Between Two Worlds: Modern Wives in a Traditional Setting 9789814345736

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The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies was established as an autonomous organization in May 1968. It is a regional research centre for scholars and other specialists concerned with modern Southeast Asia, particularly the multi-faceted problems of stability and security, economic development, and political and social change. The Institute is governed by a twenty-two-member Board of Trustees comprising nominees from the Singapore Government, the National University of Singapore, the various Chambers of Commerce, and professional and civic organizations. A ten-man Executive Committee oversees day-to-day operations; it is chaired by the Director, the Institute's chief academic and administrative officer.

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: MODERN WIVES IN A TRADITIONAL SE1TING

STELLA R. QUAH National University of Singapore

Field Report Series No. 19 I NSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES 1988

Published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang Singapore 0511 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

© 1988 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies The responsibility for facts and opinions expressed in this publication rests exclusively with the author, and her interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the Institute or its supporters. Cataloguing in Publication Data Quah, Stella R. Between two worlds: modern wives in a traditional setting. (Field report series I Institute of Southeast Asian Studies; no. 19) 1. Wives --Singapore - Social conditions. 2. Motherhood - Social aspects -Singapore. I. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. U. Title. Ill. Series. DS501 1594 no. 19 1988 ISBN 9971-988-85-2 ISSN 0217-7099

Printed in Singapore by IGrn Hup Lee Printing Co. Pte. Ltd.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

1v

I

Introduction

11

Relevant Features of the Social Setting

Ill

Approaches in the Study of Values and Motherhood

IV

Tradition, Modernity and Motherhood 16 Perception of Marriage 22 Husbands' Agreement and Marital Satisfaction

1

2

V

Other Aspects of Motherhood Postponement

VI

Conclusion

39

Appendix A: Notes on the study procedure Appendix B: Questionnaire Notes

69

Bibliography

71

47

42

37

31

7

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to the World Health Organization [Special Programme for Research in Human Reproduction] for the Project Grant No. 81005 without which this study could not have been possible. In the course of reaching the target population for this study, I received the invaluable and kind co-operation of the following persons: Dr Sivakami Devi, who was in 1981 Deputy Director of Medical Services (Primary Health/Health Education}, Ministry of Health, and Chair· person, Singapore Family Planning and Population Board (SFPPB}; Dr Ng Kwok Choy, Director, Kandang Kerbau Hospital; Professor S.S. Ratnam, Head, Unit U, Kandang Kerbau Hospital; Dr Choo Hee Tiat, Head, Unit A, Kandang Kerbau Hospital; Dr D. Vengadasalam, Head, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Alexandra Hospital; Dr Tan Wee Khin; Dr Paul M. Tan; Dr Lena Chen; Dr R.H. Yung; Dr Chan Yew Foon; Mrs Li Siew Boon, Research & Evaluation Unit, SFPPB; Mrs Tan Phaik In, Maternal & Child Health Services, SFPPB; Mr Goh Thiang Hock and Mr Ling Cheoh Wang, Statistics and Medical Records Officers at Alexandra Hospital and Kandang Kerbau Hospitals respectively; and Mrs June Cheong, Social Worker, Unit U, Kandang Kerbau Hospital. The team of competent interviewers also deserves special mention as their enthusiasm and dedication contributed in great measure to the implementation of this study. Finally, I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the 233 women who kindly gave some time from their daily work to be interviewed.

I

INTRODUCTION

Most societies today are in a stage of transition, moving at different paces from one point to another along the contin uum of modernity . In a situation of transition or cultural change , adults get married and become parents not only as a response to the social pressures to conform, but also accordi ng to thei r personal life goals and priorities. The purpose of this pape r is to focus on the married couple's decision concerning the timing of their first child, and to identify the relevant factors involved in such a decision. The discussion is based on some o~ the findings from a larger study on delayed parenthoodl and is divided into four sections . The first section provides a brief background on the situation in Singapore, del ineating relevant aspects of the social setting within which the study took place. The second section is a review of research findings from other studies concerning parenthood decisions , their causes and consequences. The third section presents and discusses the aspects of modernity and traditionalism that are found to be related to the choice of delayed motherhood. A concluding section summarizes the main findings and their implications. The description of the study design is provided in Appendix A; and the questionnaire used during the interviews appears in Appendix B.

11

RElEVANT FEATURES Of THE SOCIAl SETIING

Compared to other nations in Asia, Singapore has some the unique features. The two most relevant are: inclination of Singaporeans to respond positively to policy directives that are popularly perceived as benefiting the community as a whole; and the government's determination to speed up social and economic development, and the consequent array of po 1i ci es and po 1icy changes that have taken place during the past two decades (Quah, 1983a). A discussion involving social values, wives and their timing of the first baby, has been topical in Singapore since the end of the col onial era. But the reasons for the importance given to this issue have changed considerably during the past few years. Before 1984, the government was concerned with controlli ng population growth. At the time when field-work for this study was being carried out (between November 1981 and April 1982),2 the main thrust of the family planning policy was to control population growth by persuading the population "to stop at two", to have later marriages, to delay having the first child and to space out the two chi ldren (SFPPB, 1979: 18; Pakshong, 1979: 21-22) although a fertility decline was already evident (Chang, 1970). Singapore's family planning policy, as implemented by the former Singapore Family Planning and Population Board (SFPPB), influenced family behaviour and

Relevant Features of the Soci a l Setting was

comprehensive and

very successful

(UNFPA,

3

1975; Wan ,

1976; Quah, 1981; Quah , 1983a; Mirror, 1986: 2-3). After

1984,

the

goals

were

reversed:

government

1eaders presented the 1ow marriage and reproduction rates of

female

university

graduates

as

a

social

problem for

Si ngapore in what was labelled by the press as "The Great Marriage then,

Debate".

Marriage

and

parenthood

have,

been actively encouraged among those groups

since in the

popu 1at ion who were most responsive to the ori gi na 1 goa 1 s, namely, the better educated.

Today, the low reproduction

rates of Singapore women, particularly among the Chinese, continue to be at

the forefront of the nation • s worries

(St raits Times, 1987). Amidst these changing orientations, however, there are individuals who trace their own 1 ife paths along personal routes

and

relevance:

for

whom

collective

values

have

a

different

1 i ke most people in the corrmunity, they share

some basic values but are not ready to abide entirely by the majority view when organizing their own life.

Those

individuals formed the pool from which the subjects of this study were selected.

To capture the significance of this

group, another aspect of the social needs

to

be

reviewed

attitudes

of

people

briefly, on

what

setting in Singapore

namely, is

the

values

"appropriate"

and

or

not,

regarding the timing of marriage and parenthood. According to the Second National Family Planning and population

survey

conducted

by

the

SFPPB

in

1979,

Singaporeans believed that the "appropriate" age for a wife to have her first child is 25, and that she should have her last child when she reaches 30 to 31 years of age .

The

median age at first marriage among the women interviewed in the SFPPB survey was 22.3 years,3 and the median interval between marri age and the first child was thirteen months (SFPPB, 1979: 36-39). anM>ng

Singaporeans,

In a st udy on childbearing decisions it

was

found

t hat

t he

use

of

4

Stella Quah

contracPptiv2s to delay the birth of the first child was "rare because basically marriage is seen to be synonymous to having chi 1dren and having a child soon after marriage is considered normal and desirable" (Chung, Chen, Kuo and Purushotam, 1981: 67). The average age of the mother at the first birth tends to vary according to the mother's ethnic group; calculations based on the official figures for 1984 indicate that it was 23.5 among Malays; 24.5 for Indians; and 26.5 for Chinese (Registrar-General of Births and Deaths, 1985: 38-39). On the other hand, the change in values concerning the appropriate age for marriage is reflected in the mean age at marriage for women across the span of three decades, as illustrated in Tables 1 and 2. Indeed, the age at marriage for women who mar ried before 1946 was 18.9 while this age increased to 23.7 among women who married between 1976 and 1980. The age at marriage for women has continued to increase, from 24.7 in 1981 to 25.6 in 1986 (Khoo, 1987: 43).

The impact of education is also evident in Table 2.

The tendency among women with higher education to marry later has continued over the past forty years and follows a well-documented trend in other countries. With these aspects of the social setting in mind, it is reasonable to assume that voluntary postponement of a woman 's first child until the age of 28 or later is a definite step outside the norm. This study aims at analysing precisely the dynamics of such a "deviant" decision and focuses on the wife rather than the husband. Selecting the wife as the main figure requires explanation. The two main reasons were: firstly, the best way to locate couples who have exercised voluntary postponement (as defined above) was by means of the registries at family planning clin ics or clinics dispensing contraceptives, and maternity hospitals (both government and private), in all of which women are the registered "patients". The other

Table 1:

Average Age at Marriage by Selected Characteristics, Singapore, 1970-86a 1970

1980

1983

1986

28. I 24.2

27.9 24 . 7

28.3 25. 2

28.9 25. 8

Chinese Indian Otherb

28. 0 29. I 28.6

27 . 7 27.8 33.0

28. I 28.3 32. 3

28.8 28.7

Females Chinese Indian Otherb

24.3 22. 6 25.1

24 . 7 24.0 27.4

25. I 24 .6 27.4

25. 8 25. 2 28. 0

27.7 22. 3

27.3 23.8

27.3 24 .0

28.3 25.0

Mal ay Indian Otherc

27. 6 27. 9 29.6

27 . I 27. 7 30.4

27 . I 27. 6 29. 8

28.1 28.5 30.7

Females Mal ay Indian OtherC

22.3 22.2 25. 0

23. 8 23. 6 25.6

24.1 23. 5 25.2

25. 0 24.5 27.7

Selected Characteristics Marriages under the Women's Charter AI I Males AI I Females ~

34 . 0

Marriages under the Muslim law Act Al l Males AI I Females ~

a

The figures for 1970, 1980 and 1983 are taken from Department of (Singapore: Stat istics (1984), Stat istics on Marriages 1983 Department of Statistics>, pp. 26-27 and 39-41. The figures tor 1986 are taken from Department ot StatIstIcs ( 1987 >, Yearbook of Statistics 1986 (Singapore: Department of Statistics) , p. 43; and Department of Statistics (1987>, Statistics on Marriages and Divorces 1986 , pp. 7- 8.

reason was to make the study findings comparab 1e to those from surveys conducted by the SFPPB, where the wives were the units of analysis.

Ill

APPROACHES JN THE STUDY OF VALUES ANO MOTHERHOOD

The value of ma rri age and motherhood in the list of life goals among women appears to remain high in many countries (Poston argued

and

1982;

Trent,

that

1982) .

Polit ,

lt

is

such values need no demonstration

us uall y

in Asian,

Latln Ameri c an or African tradit i onal cul tures, but that it 1s

the

exposure

to

Western

or

"modern"

values

that

undermines t he importance of marriage and motherhood.

Yet,

contrary to popular not i on s , women 1n Western cul ture s are not necess ar ily inc l1ned to shun marriage and motherhood . In her s t udy, Mothers 1n Transition , Eak ins reports that "there is an overwhe lm1ng mand ate in the Un lted Sta tes for w0111en t o become mothers regardl e ss of trend s in t echno l ogy" ( 1983:

that

Reviewing st ud1es on the subj ec t, she fo und

59 ) .

"even

childless

e ssent ia l

component

it

women

is

women

perce ive

of marriage" ,

evident

tha t

children

and

for

"motherh ood

to

most

has

be

an

American

accompan ied

wifehood and vice ve r sa"; t herefor e, on the issue of having ch1ldren, "t he only choices involved had to do wi th timing"

( 1983: 61 -63) . The se f 1nd 1ng s a re con f 1rmed by Thorn ton and Freedman ( 1983: 16 ) who , based on t he1r analys1 s of pop ulation f1gures

1n

the

Urnted

Stat es ,

declared

that

"Although

paren t hood ha s become more option a 1, there is no evidence of

an

emb r acement

of

chil dless ne ss .

Subst ant1al

8 Ste ll a Quah proportions of Americans continue to value parenthood, believe that childbearing should accompany marriage, and fee l social pressure to have children". In another study, Thornton and Freeman report that "marriage continues to be va 1ued by the majori ty of young Americans ••••• More than 90 per cent expect to marry and there has been almost no decline in that proportion since 1960" although marriage appears to be more important for young women than young men ( 1986: 30).

International testify

that

both

data

on

marriage

marriage and

and

parenthood

chi l dbearing are

very

important goals in the 1ife of the adult person in modern societies. Thus, the "unusual" decision to postpone or avoid parenthood has been explained by social scientists4 using one of three theories , namely, the biological drive theory; the normative theory , and the choice and exchange theory. The bi o1ogi ea 1 drive theory argues that human beings , particularly females, are genetically, hormonally and physiologically driven to have children (see , among others, Benedek, 1959; Newton, 1973). Thus, women who decide not to have children are seen as genetically or hormonally deficient or impaired. Although this theory has had numerous followers, it has major weaknesses: most of the research to test it has been conducted on ani ma 1s rather than on humans; the findings are inconclusive; and there is no reliable and valid empirical (Chorodow, 1978: 21-30).

evidence to support it

The normative theory, on the other hand, indicates that the inclination to parenting is a universal social norm and it is le arned as a social role mainly through socialization, and particularly by means of sex -role training given to young girls by their families. Exponents of this theory indicate that society exerts pressure on women to conform to this role and provides institutional

Study of Values and Motherhood settings

to

30-39 ) .

reinforce

Accord i ngly,

such

pressure

(Chorodow,

9

1978 :

women who opt for either voluntary

childlessness or prolonged postponement of childbearing are seen as "deviants" who are victims of psychological or emotional problems, or "early childhood traumas" (Read ing and Amatea, 1986 : 255 ) . Both

the

biologi ca l

drive

t heory and

the

normative

theory are determini s tic in that they assume the i ndividual ha s no choice concerning parenthood: women are driven to motherhood either by a genetic "instinct" or by social pressu re offered

to confo rm . by

the

A rather different

choi ce

as sumpt i on of this

and

theory

exchange is that

perspective

theory.

The

the individual

is

basic has a

choi ce when making decisions about his/her life, and that dec i si on-mak i ng

is

based

on

the

perceived

costs

and

benefits of ea ch avail abl e cou rse of action.

Nye, one of the best representatives of this theory, indicates that One makes an infi ni te number of choi ces so as to reduce his costs, max im ize his rewards for most pr ofits (or lea st losses ) .

Some of these choices

involve ••• exchanges with i nd ividua l s • •• an organi zation or society as a who 1e [ but) excha nges probably always

i nv olve choices but choices may

not necessar ily involve exchanges. Consequently ,

the

dec ision

to

(1979: 4) postpone

or

avoid

parenthood i s interpreted by this theory as a choice made when the i ndi vidua ls involved perceive the cost of child ren as too high compared with the rewards or benefits of delay i ng parenthood or not having children at a 11. The choice and exchange theory underlies the conceptual frameworks of numerous investigation s, i ncluding crossnational comparisons on the value of child ren (Hoffman and Hoff•n,

1973; Arnold et al..

1975: 3-1 ); Chen. Kuo and

10 Ste ll a Quah Chung, 1982: 2- 4; Chung, Chen, Kuo and Purushotam, 1981: 2-4 ). This study probes the premises of the choice and exchange theory, arguing that there are four main motivating factors in the choice made by some Singapore wives to postpone their first child longer than the majority of their counterparts, that is, beyond the age of 28. Wives were assumed to decide on postponement if such delay would maximize their enjoyment of marriage without creating conflict in their marital relations , increasing the probability of late pregnancy complications or diminishing fertility . More specifically, the assumed four main reasons for a wife's choice of postponement were: (a) her subjective perception of the main purpose of marriage; (b) her perception of her husband's agreement with her basic values and views; (c) her perception of her own fertility; and (d) her perception of the possible health risks of late pregnancies. There are, of course, other possible reasons for postponement some of which will be discussed later. But the four listed above are seen as the most important and require further attention at this point. A wife's subjective perception of marriage refers to her belief of what is the principal purpose of marriage. Opinions may vary from a "traditional" belief that marriage is exclusively or mainly a legal arrangement for 11 11 procreation to the modern be 1i ef that the main purpose of marriage is companionship and love between two consenting adults. The wives' subjective perception of marriage was ascertained during the interviews in three ways. One was their responses to a Likert - type scale on the perception of marriage along the traditional-modern continuum. 5 The second procedure was their ranking of five aspects of marriage; 6 and the third approach was their answers to an open -ended question on the main purpose of marriage.? The basic assumption was that the more modern her perception of

Study of Values and Motherhood

11

marriage, the more likely it is for a wife to decide in favour of postponement of her first pregnancy. The

second

perception

of

important factor refers to the wife's her husband's agreement on three relevant

aspects of postponement.

These aspects a re: agreement on the idea 1 1ength of postponement; on the main purpose of Nrri age; and on the wife's chances to conceive after she reaches the age of 28 . 8 the

crucial

husband's

factor

agreement,

is

It is important to emphasize that the

and

not

disagreement with her views. that

wife's his

perception actual

of

agreement

her or

The underlying assumption is

the wife 's

perception and/or interpretation of her husband's opinion is what actually influences her views on postponement. She wou 1d be more 1i ke 1y to choose to de 1ay her first pregnancy i f she believes that her husband agrees wi th her on these three aspects . The

variable

hu s band's

agreement

deals

with

a

phenomenon

referred to in the 1i terature as spouse interaction or husband-wife COITIIluni c ation. The influence

of

spouse

dec isions

intera ction or communi cati on upon ch ildbearing is still inconclus ive. Some researchers have

found an assoc iation between husband -wife communi c at ion and agreement on the one hand, and fertility decisions on the other hand (Chen, 1979 : 193 ) . Other studies, however, have found that variables such as husband dominance (in decisionmaking ) or spouse interaction (sharing worrie s , discussing another chlld, spending leisure time together, agreeing on wife's role ), are not significantly related to the number of children a couple has; that is the c a se of the Si ngapore f1nd1ngs

from a

fertility

( Kuo and Chiew, 1984: 122-123) as well as the from the other participating countries , namely,

findings

c ross-national

study

on

ethnicity

and

Thailand, Indonesia, Ma l ay si a and the Philippines (Wong and Ng, 1985: 328; Gastardo-Conaco and Ramos-Jimenez, 1986:

121-130; Tan and Soeradji, 1986: 122) .

Perhaps the only

12

Stella Quah

exception to this study

that

trend was the

"egalitarian

report by the Thailand

couples"

(in

terms

of

decision-making) had a lower number of children compared to "non-egalitarian couples" (Prasithrathsint , 1985: 170).

It

is then worthwhile to exp 1ore further the impact of the perception of husband's agreement. The third main reason assumed to be impo rtant in a wife's choice to postpone childbearing is her perception of her own fertility,

that

after the age of 28.

is,

of

her chances to conceive

This aspect is ascertained by means

of a Likert-type scale,9 one closed-ended and one openended

question.10

There

is

a

tendency

among women

to

be 1 i eve that their fertility dec 1 i nes as they get o1der . In a study of Dutch women (World Fertility Su rvey, 1978), it was found that 99 per cent of those under 25 years of age considered themselves biologically capable of bearing children; this proportion declined to 89 per cent of the women aged 30 to 34; and to 75 per cent of the women 35 years

old

and

older.

fertility

and

research,

studies

modern medical

age

While

has

also

been

the

correlation

demonstrated

indicate that

technology,

with

in the

of this

study,

it

medical help

of

it is possible for a woman to

conceive and give birth even after the age of 40. context

between

is

assumed

that

In the

a wife

who

believes that her fertility will decline as she gets older, will consider the delay of the first child as a high cost to pay for whatever benefits she gets from postponement. The subjective perception of health risks of de 1 ayed motherhood is the fourth main aspect assumed to be involved in a wife's choice to postpone her first pregnancy until or beyond the age of 28. As in the case of perceived fertility, health risks are seen primarily as a cost rather than a benefit of postponement. advanced diagnostic

There are in Singapore

and monitoring procedures for mother

and foetus throughout the pregnancy whi eh reduce si gni fi-

Study of Va1ues and Motherhood

13

cantly the health risks of later pregnancies (after the age of 35, for example). However, the question is whether wives who are 28 years old or older know about the availability of such medical services and believe in their efficacy to minimize health risks. In addition to the preceding four factors assumed to play a major role in the decision to postpone motherhood, there are three other independent variables included in this study that have been found in other studies to be associ ated in different ways with procreation decisions. The se variables are the wife's life goals,ll her level of marital satisfaction,12 and her perception of advantages and disadvantages [other than health risks] of delayed motherhood.13 Of these three aspects, marital satisfaction ha s produced perhaps the most discrepant research findings. Some studies show that motherhood increases marital satisfaction while others indicate that marital satisfaction declines with the presence of children.l4 It i s , thu s, important to probe the influence of marital satisfaction upon the postponement of the first child in the context of Singapore. Certain other features of the wives in the study were also assumed to be related, at least indirectly, with their choice of postponement. These features (or antecedent variables ) are : the wife's and her husband's level of education, occupation, age, age at marriage, religious affiliation (if any), and ethnicity. All these factors have been found to be associated with fertility decisions in the studies mentioned so far and may well prove to be important considerations in postponement decisions. In Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries, for example, ethnicity has been found to be a very important determinant of the number of children ever born, and the use of contraceptives (Kuo and Chiew, 1984; Wong and Ng, 1985) and there are also differences among some ethnic

14

Ste 11 a Quah

groups

in

(Hirschman

the interval Rindfus ,

and

between marriage and 1981:

24-27).

The

first

birth

differential

fe r tility rates of the main ethnic groups in Si ngapore have been we 11 documented during the past decades and continue in 1986, the Malay fertility rate wa s 2 . 05, while it was 1. 89 for Indians and 1.26 for the Chinese , according to the Population Report figures announced i n the press (St raits Times, 1987). The main ethnic groups differ not

today:

only in fertility rates but also in mean age at marriage (Chang,

1970;

Department of Statistics,

1982 ) , and their

perception of the appropriate age for a wife to have her first child. Indeed , in the SFPPB study, the Chinese women gave the highest "appropriate" age for a mother at first birth , that is , 25 .5 years, compared to the average age of 23 . 2 years indicated by the Indian women, and 22 . 6 years by the Malay women.

Similarly , the perception of appropriate

age also varies with the wife's level of formal education. Women with no formal education believed it wa s appropriate for a woman to wait until she was 24 years old, while those with post-secondary school education or tertiary education felt that the appropriate age to have the first baby was between 25 and 26 (or 25.8 years) (SFPPB , 1979: 39) . After this discussion on the principal factors assumed to be related to delayed motherhood, it may be cl ear that delayed

motherhood

itself

is

defined

as

the

voluntary

postponement of the birth of the first child unti 1 or after the wife reaches the age of 28. Neverthe 1ess , a few more details must be explained concern·ing the procedure used to determine whether a given case could be class i fied as delayed motherhood . The first two consi derations were age and length of marriage. The wives selected15 had to be 28 years old or older, and should have been married for at least two years Whether the wives had at the time of the interview. c hildren or not, a case was considered as voluntary dehy

Study of Values and Motherhood

15

if the wife had postponed her first pregnancy for two years or more (until

or beyond her 28th birthday) for reasons

other than infertility of either spouse.

As explained in

the preceding pages, such a delay is highly unusual in the context of Asia in general, and Singapore in particular. Indeed, women

a

comparison

from Taiwan,

of

survey figures

South Korea,

on married

Thailand and Peninsular

Malaysia, collected between 1966 and 1977, revealed that the median age at marriage varied from 15.4 among Malaysian Malays to 20.3 among the Taiwanese, and the median age at first birth varied from 18.0 for the Malaysian Malays to 21.7

for

the Taiwanese,

with

the

other groups

falling

somewhere between these two extremes; the longest "delay" in the first pregnancy was found among the Malaysian Malays (2.6 years) and the South Koreans (2.5 years) and Rindfus, 1981: 41 ).

(Hirschman

Moreover, a study of Singaporean

family p1anni ng acceptors from 1972 to 1975 found that the use

of

contraception

before

practised by a minority:

the

first

child

was

only

the general trend was "to have

the first child before contraceptive practice ••• only 4 per cent of the acceptors were nulliparous [had no children] at the time of registration" (Wan, Chen and Pang, 1976: 4). Mindful of the importance of analysing both attitudes and

behaviour,

three

specific

approaches

were

used

to

ascertain de 1ayed motherhood among the wives in the study. These approaches were:

the recording of "actua 1 de 1ay",

that is, the number of years the wife had been married before she had her first child or her first pregnancy; 16 "ideal

delay",

that

is,

the wife's

views

on the ideal

number of years a couple should wait to have their first child; 17 and the actua 1 use of contraceptives before the birth of the first child.l8 The

next

section

will

highlight

the

aspects

tradition and modernity in the choice of postponement.

of

IV

TRADITION , MODERNITY AND MOTHERHOOD

As the conversations with the wives i n the study progressed, it became clear that not on l y were they wil li ng to talk about their marriages and their l ife, but t his group of women, specially identified in the l arger popu l ation as unusual or different, was also not homogeneous in their values and perspectives. They differed among themselves in their subjective perception of marr i age, their life goals, their level of marital satisfaction, and their perception of advantages and disadvantages of delayed motherhood. But, before discussing these differences, an overview of some basic features will provide a useful background of the wives in the study. Although they all represented cases of childbearing postponement, these women were clearly inc l ined to motherhood; of the 233 women in the study, 95 per cent {222) had at least one child at the t i me of the study . The average age of the women was 30.4, and that of their husbands was 32.3. Contrary to expectations, the women were not highly educated, as can be appreciated in Table 3. Nearly half of the wives {46.3 per cent) had completed primary school and over a third (36.0 per cent) had a secondary school certificate; but only 4.3 per cent had university degrees. On the other hand, as a group, these women were more job-oriented than the tot a1 fema 1e

Table 3:

Protl le of the Wives end their Husbands ( In percentages)

Characteristics

Age 28 30 32 34

to to to or

Wives

29 31 33 o l der

Husbands

Total (N)

30.9 50.6 11.2 1. 3 100.0 (233)

16.3 35.2 19.7 28.8 100.0 (233)

Highest educationa l level attained No format education Completed primary school Completed secondary school Vocationa l or Technica l Pre-unlverslty University Total (N)

5.2 46.3 36.0 3.5 4.7 4.3 100.0 (233)

1.4 39.9 31.3 9.4 9.4 8.6 100.0 (233)

Working status Housewife Employed Unemployed

42.5 57.5

Total (N) Occueetlon of those working Professional, technical or managerial Cler i cal, sales Craftsmen, foremen Operatives Service Labourers

100.0

12.7 31.3 8.9 29.9 11.2

Total (N)

100.0 (134)

98.7 1. 3 1oo.o (233)

24.8 21.3 21.7 20.0 6.5 5.7 100.0 (230)

Table 3

IndIcators of Postponement

ldeal 1 Percept I on of some aspects of Marriage

1-2

Actua l 2

}+

1-2

Contral

}+

No

Yes

Tota l

(N)

Husband's role Some equa l ity In marriage Is a good thIng but husband ought to have the main say. Agree Disagree

85.1 87.8

14.9 12.2

64 . 8 74.}

l5 . 2 25.7

66 . 0 54 . 1

}4. 0 45. 9

100. 0 100. 0

( 159) ( 74)

lt Is a ref lection of a hu sband's manhood I f his wife works. Agree Disagree

88. 0 85. 7

12. 0 14.}

64 . }

68.}

}5. 7 ll . 7

57, 1 62,9

42 . 9 :n .1

100. 0 100. 0

( 28) (205)

88. 2 84,1

11.8 15.'9

63.8 71.1

}6.2 28 , 9

68 , 6 57, 0

} 1,4 4}. 0

100,0 100 . 0

( 105) ( 128)

Home versus career Almost any woman Is better off In the home than In 11 job or profess Ion. Agree Dls ( 42)

lovIng !!!)': husband (Mean score= 2,56) Most Important Less Important Least Important

84,7 85.7 89,1

15.3 14 , 3 10,9

64,8 69. 4 73,2

35,2 30. 6 26, 8

61 . 7 59, 2 66. 1

38.3 40,8 33,9

100. 0 100,0 100. 0

( 128) ( 49) ( 56)

Managing the home (Mean score= 2.90) Most Important Less Important Least Important

88, 5 87 , 1 82,3

11,5 12,9 17.7

75. 3 65.6 61,3

24,7 34 . 4 38, 8

66,3 53. 1 65,0

33. 7 46, 9 35. 0

100, 0 100. 0 100, 0

( 89) ( 64) ( 80).

Having children (Mean score= 3, 30) Most Important Less Important Least Important

90,5 87, 5 83,0

9. 5 12,5 17,0

68. 2 74,1 63.0

31,8 25. 9 37, 0

65, 9 75. 3 50,9

34,1 24,7 49,1

100. 0 100,0 100,0

( 44) ( 81) ( 108)

•

..

Table 6

(Con~lnued)

Indicators of Postponement

Ideal I Most Important Principles of 14arrlage4

e,

Obeyi ng husband (Mean score= 4, 20) Most Important Less Important Least Important

Mal n pur~ose of marriage Comp, & love Procreation

1-2

Actual2

:5+

1-2

8:5, :5 87, 0 86, .3

16,7 1.3,0 1.3,7

6:5, .3 45,8 71,5

82, 8 87,2

17,2 12,8

59, 1 71 ,.3

...

Contra:5

:5+

No

Yes

Total

(N)

:56, 7 54.2 28,5

60,0 45,8 64,8

40, 0 54.2 :55,2

100, 0 100,0 100, 0

( .30) ( 24) (179)

40,9 28, 7

60. 6 62, 9

.39, 4 .37, 1

100, 0 100, 0

( 66) ( 167)

Same as In Table 4, footnote I, 2

Same as In Table 4, footnote 2.

:5

Same as In Table 4, footnote .3,

4

Same as In footnote In Table 5, The mean scores were computed from the original 1 to 5 ranking; the closer a given mean score was to 1, the more Important that principle was for the wives In the study,

5

An open-ended question • (r =,161; p •,007), (r =. 105; p s , 05l,

30 Stella Quah not vary significantly from each other in their ranking of marriage principles but rather in their views of the main purpose of marriage ( r=-. 222); those v1i th post-secondary or tertiary education were more inclined to believe that companionship and love are the main purpose of marriage while their less educated counterparts were more of the opinion that the main objective of marriage is procreation. Th e second main piece of information in Table 6 concerns the influence of a wife•s attitudes towards marriage upon her decision to postpone the birth of her first child. Keeping in mind that these wives were at the crossroads of different value trends (modern versus traditional) and unable to decide what path to follow, it is not surprising to find that their decision on postponement was only weakly influenced by their mixed value orientations. There were just three points of contact between attitudes towards marriage and postponement: wives who considered home management and procreation as the least important principles were also more inclined to have a longer postponement of their first child; but wives who considered obedience to the husband a top priority had the opposite tendency of waiting 1onger than those who ranked obedience at the bottom of the 1i st. Such an intriguing trend v~as clarified \vhen the husband •s position on postponement was considered: the husbands of these women wanted to de 1ay their first chi 1d and the wives had to abide, dutifully, by their husbands• decision. In sum, the wives• perception of marriage was a mosaic of values loosely held together by the imperatives of soci a1 pressures to conform. These women showed an inclination towards modernity in their recognition of unfair restrictions for women, their emphasis on spouse equality in family discussions, and in their affirmation that companionship and love are the top principles in marriage as opposed to obedience and procreation. But

Tradition, Modernity and Motherhood

31

their need to conform to prevailing traditional mores is reflected in the qualifications they expressed when dealing with actions rather than abstract considerations: they believed that wives must have equal voice but not equal vote in final decisions; that women are better off at home than holding a job; and that the main purpose of marriage is to have children. It was clearly an acceptable compromise for these Singaporean wives to be modern in thought and traditional in action, particularly since they had a1ready stepped beyond the norm by either postponing their first child 1onger, or marrying 1at er , than most women . Husbands ' Agree.ent and Marital Sati sfaction Inevitably, the conversations with wives involved the topic of husbands. The husband is there, implicitly or explicitly , when a wife talks about her marriage and about decisions on having children . It would be unrealistic to dismiss the influence of her husband •s opinions and attitudes upon the wife •s own views and actions . On the other hand, time contraints during the interviews prevented an in -depth discussion on the husband . Instead, some direct and indirect aspects of the husband's influence were considered. The direct aspects were the wife's perception of he r husband ' s agreement with her opinion on three i ssues, that is, on how long a couple should wait to have their first child (ideal postponement); on the main purpose of marriage; and on her fertility after the age of 35. The indirect aspect was the wife's level of marital satisfaction. Although husbands were , on average, slightly older than their wives (mean age 32.2 and 30. 4 respectively), there was similarity between the spouses . For example , their educational level was rather close , 20 notwithstanding the fact that the husbands were slightly higher educated

32 Stella Quah than their wives; and the large majority followed the socially approved principle of marrying within their own ethnic community.21 While similarities in educational background, ethnicity , age and other aspects do not guarantee complete harmony between spouses , a certain degree of similarity helps. Most wives perceived a high level of agreement on the part of their husbands concerning the three issues mentioned earlier. Indeed, 87 . 6 per cent of the wives felt that their husbands agreed entirely with them on the ideal number of years a couple should wait before having their first child; nearly all of the wives (92.7 per cent) reported that their husbands agreed entirely with them on what is the main purpose of marriage; and 76.4 per cent of the wives believed their husbands agreed entirely with them on the aspects of fema 1e fert i1 i ty 1eve 1 after the age of 35. Yet , contrary to expectations, this strong level of agreement had very little to do with the choice of postponement of the first child.22 Turning to marital satisfaction, it is a difficult subject to discuss even in the intimacy of a marital counselling session. In view of the sensitivity of the topic, direct questioning was avoided during the interviews . Instead, wives indicated their agreement or disagreement with some statements on marital satisfaction. Still, keeping in mind the possible pressure of social approval (a wife may have felt that she would lose face if she said she was unhappy with her marriage), the wives • answers indicate a high level of marital satisfaction. For example, 72 . 5 per cent of them did not think that their friends enjoyed their marriages more than they did; in fact, 73 per cent of the wives felt that they were happier in their marriages than most people they knew; and 78.5 per cent indicated that they found real enjoyment in their marriages.23

Tradition, Modernity and Motherhood

33

Contrary to the case of husband's agreement, marital satisfaction

appears

to

have

some

influence

upon

the

decision to postpone the first child , as illustrated in Table 7. Wives who felt that they were happier in their marriages

than

most

other

people ,

or

who

found

real

enjoyment in their marriage, were more inclined to believe in a longer postponement, to have actually waited longer and to have used contraceptives, compared to wives who felt differently about their marriages . This link between marital satisfaction and motherhood postponement is not new to family sociologists. In 1970, Rollins and Feldman published the findings of their study on "Marita 1 satisfaction over the family 1 ife eye 1e" in the Journal

of Marriage and the Family.

Their data showed

cl early that husbands and wives were most satisfied with their marriages at the two extremes of the cycle, that is, during Marital

the

pre-parental

satisfaction

period

declined

and

after

steadily

retirement. during

the

intermediate stages of rearing pre- schoo 1, schoo 1- age and teenage children, and began ris i ng again as the children became young adults and left the home (Rollins and Feldman, 1970). While theirs was ground - breaking work , challenging the widespread notion that children and mar ita 1 b1 i ss go together, it was Jessie Bernard who called attention to Rollins and Feldman ' s findings in her book The Future of Marriage (1972: 68-70). Since then, a great number of empirical studies have tested that popular assumption .

For example, it has been

argued that "while society believes that children help to forge a stronger bond between spouses ••• childless marriages are more satisfactory than those with children" (Good body,

1977: 428). A concise but useful surmnary of these studies is provided by Boulton (1983: 18- 19). The results do , in general,

confirm

Rollins

and

Feldman's

findings.

Not

everyone , however, agrees with the interpretation of such

Telle 7:

Choice of Postponement end Marital Satisfaction (In percentages>

Indicators of Postponement

I deal I Merltel Sat I sf&ct Ion

1-2

I feel t hat I am happ ier with my marrIage than most people. Disagree Agree

95.0 80. 0

I find rea l enjoyment 1n my merrlege. Disagree Agree

92.0 82. 0

See Tab le 4, footnote 1. See Table 4, footnote 2. See Tab le 4, footnote 3. • p =. 004; Genwne s . 285 • p =. 007; Genwne =. 440. ••• p =.003; Genwne =. 492. I

2 3

••

Actuel2

3+

•

1-2

5.0 20. 0

79 . 0 70.0

e.o

88.0 69. 0

18. 8

••

Contre3

3+

No

Yes

Total

(N)

21.0 30.0

71.0 61.0

29.0 39. 0

100. 0 100.0

( 63) ( 170)

12.0 31.0

80. 0 57. 0

20.0 43. 0

100.0 100. 0

( 50) (183)

•••

Tradition, Modernity and Motherhood

35

data as there is also evidence that most adults still regard parenthood as highly rewarding. The link between marital satisfaction and children is further documented in a study of divorced couples in England, where it was found that childlessness and divorce were not associated in the assumed way: divorcing couples had more children than couples who remained married and also attained a larger family size within the same time period, that is, their spacing of children was shorter (Gibson, 1980). Reviewing findings from several large surveys of adults in the United States in the 1980s, Berger and Berger concluded that married people are much more likely to say that they are happy than single people, regardless of what questions researchers asked in various studies ••• [but] Curiously, it is marriage, rather than parenthood that seems to be the crucial factor here: Married couples with children are not happier than those without. Nevertheless, 1arge numbers of both men and women continue to want children (1984: 163). The apparent cont rad i et ion of the findings of these and other studies actually indicates the presence of two separate dimensions in the life of married couples. On the one hand, a person needs the emotional support, love and companionship that the spouse provides and that can be best enjoyed in the privacy of their relationship. On the other hand, it is undeniable that parenthood is a unique life experience bringing invaluable rewards to both spouses. Nevertheless, in terms of time commitment and the responsibilities involved, the parental role is a highly demanding one. The data from the wives in this study suggest that, as

36 Stella Quah far as procreation decisions are concerned, these couples go through the same process of mixed emotions that married people elsewhere undergo; all couples are fully committed to parenthood, and yet those who have postponed their first child for longer than others manifest higher marital In the light of Singapore's current satisfaction . population trends and the higher education and mar ital expectations of young people, the importance of these findings should not be overlooked. Young married couples require emotional support from their families as well as adequate counselling and parental education to help them deal with the normal but rarely discussed stress of becoming parents. Parental education could emphasize ways of maintaining a satisfying marital relationship while enjoying the gift of parenthood.

V

OTlER ASPECTS OF fii)THERHOOO POSTPONEMENT

The main emphasis of this discussion is on the aspects of modernization

and

tradition

as

reflected

in

the

wives•

attitudes and behaviour concerning the meaning of marriage in their 1i ves and motherhood postponement.

Such aspects

have been dealt with in the preceding pages .

The original

study

i ne 1 uded

associated

sever a 1

with

the

other

aspects

decision

to

delay

assumed

to

parenthood,

be for

ex amp 1e , the wife • s perception of the dec 1 i ne in her own fertility and her perception of health risks for mother and child

in

aspects

late in

pregnancies.

the

context

As of

these

this

two are

secondary

presentation,

it

is

sufficient to describe only the most salient findings. As originally assumed, the perceptions of health risks and

diminished

fertility

decision on postponement.

influenced,

albeit

weakly,

the

Forty per cent of the women who

did not see major hea 1th risks waited for three years or more to have their first child, compared to only 28 per cent of those who did believe that it was risky for their own or their babies• health to postpone the first child. It was also found that women who saw age and declining fertility as the main disadvantages of delayed motherhood, were more likely to believe that health risks were high, compared

to

wives

for

whom

the

major disadvantages

of

postponement were mounting family or in-laws pressure to

38

Stella Quah

have a child or marital problems (when the husband disagreed with the wife 's desire to postpone having the first child).24 Finally , some background characteristics of the wives had an impact upon the postponement decision. One such characteristic was the educational level of the wife and the

couple's

formal

monthly

income:

the

higher

the

level

of

education and income, the more inclined the wives The influence of education

were to use contraceptives25.

upon parenthood decisions is well

documented; the wife's

education has been found to influence not only the timing of the first child but also the spacing of subsequent children . More educated wi ves wait longer and have wider intervals between children (Marini and Hodsdon 1981 : 530). The decision to postpone the first chil d al so varied among wives from different ethnic groups primarily because of their difference in age at marriage. Chinese wives, who as a group had a higher age at marriage than the rest, tended to wait only one or two years. Ma lay and Indian wives who, as a whole , had a lower age at marriage, were more i ne 1 i ned to wait three or more years for their first child.

VI

COII:LUSION

In the analysis of parenthood decisions, most studies agree that the most important predictors of the age at which a wife would have her first child are her age at marriage and the number of years she has been married. These two are demographic aspects of childbearing. In this investigation . the same two demographic aspects, part i cu larly the number of years married, appear as the key predictors of actual postponement. When all the as sumed factors tested in this study were analysed jointly (through a procedure ea 11 ed factor analysis ). the data revea 1ed that these two demographic a s pects, that is, age at marriage and years of marriage,

explained

29

per

cent

of

the

variation

(the

highest proportion explained by any one variable in this study) in the number of years of postponement: wives who married later had the shortest delay (maximum two years) in having their first child . Wives who married at a younger age could afford to wait three yea r s or more. Such

findings

are

informative.

Yet,

in

the

sociological inquiry into attitudes and feelings . one still needs to identify what other aspects (in addition to age and length of marriage) influence a person's decision on the timing of the first child. Hence, the objective of the preceding discussion has been to identify the influence of non-demographi c factors and to explore the assumption that

40 Stella Quah postponement is a choice made under certain circumstances, depending on the wife's perception of marriage, marital satisfaction and husband's agreement , for example. The conversations with the 233 wives in this study rev ea 1ed two main aspects of their si tu at ion as wives and mothers. The search for the first aspect was carefully charted by including, as variables in the study , all aspects of marriage and family life assumed to be relevant. The general finding is that a wife would be very likely to choose delaying her first child if she believes that postponing their first child would give her and her husband a unique opportunity to enjoy their marriage (defined in modern terms); that such postponement would not create conflict between the spouses (spouses would agree on this); and that she would not be risking pregnancy complications or loss in fertility. The second aspect is a 11 bonus 11 finding, discovered in the process of searching for the first: it is the uncertainty felt by women when they find themselves between two important but opposite worlds with unclear signposts, because of the changing values on marriage, family life and self-fulfilment. The personal aspiration to be more than 11 just a housewife 11 and do something intellectually challenging has to be confronted with the equally legitimate desire to be a good wife and mother. At the national level, such opposite forces and the stress they generate are part and parcel of the basic need to encourage both strong families and the full participation of women into the labour force so that the economy may run efficiently on 11 two legs 11 . 26 The women interviewed strived to attain a compromise of sorts between their modern and traditional inclinations . But such a compromise is not easy to attain. The overwhelming majority of people consider marriage and parenthood as very important goals in life. At the same

Conclusion

41

time, the demands from the home and job fronts are unlikely to subside in the near future and may, in fact, get worse before they get better. Something needs to be done to assist young married couples, particula rly young wives, to strike a satisfact ory balance between the two worlds. Family life education programmes and parenthood and marriage counsell ing, together with the supply of high quality childcare centres will help young spouses and young parents t o enjoy their marriage and children , whi eh is an important requi rement in the building of strong families .

APPENDIX A: NOTES ON THE STUDY PROCEDURE

The research design selected for this study was a survey with

structured

personal

interviews.

The main dependent

and independent variables were ascertained by means of a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions and a few Likert-type scales .

The questionnaire may be found in

Appendix B. The most difficult aspect of this study was to obtain access to the type of population needed as defined by the nature

of

the

problem

under

investigation.

The

target

population was all married women who were 28 years old or older at the time of the data collection (that is, November

1981); who had been married for at least two years; and who had postponed the birth of their first child for reasons other than infertility of either spouse. The

search

for

conducted in several

such steps .

a

popu 1at ion

or

group

was

First , it was estimated that

in 1980, there was a population of 7,844 married women aged

28 to 44 with no children and no fertility problems.

Such

1980 Population Census figures for ever - married women aged 25 to

estimation was arrived at as follows:

the official

44 with no children was 26 , 148 or 4. 8 per cent of the total population

of

ever - married

women

(Khoo,

Considering the attitudes on the ideal

1981:

63).

age to have the

first child , discussed earlier (SFPPB, 1979: 39), whereby

Appendix A 43 most women believed that the ideal age to have the first child was 25, it was assumed that most of these childless women (about 70 per cent) would have tried to have a child unsuccessfully and, consequently, no more than 30 per cent of this population would be free from fertility problems. This 30 per cent is equivalent to 7,844 women and, if this estimation

is

right,

they

would

constitute

the

target

population for the study of voluntary postponement of first birth. Unfortunately, arbitrary. number

the

estimation

of

30

per

cent

is

There were no official figures in 1981 on the

of married people facing

Singapore.

infertility problems

Such figures are still

not

in

available today.

Infertility has been thought to affect only a minority of the

adult

population

in

any

given

society but

figures

provided by experts are educated guesses, mixing male and female infertility as well as "subfertility", and there is usual l y no standardized time period for comparison {Philipp and

Carruthers,

infertility

1981).

affects

Some

about

researchers

"five

believed

million couples

in

that the

English-speaking world" (Harrison, 1977: 14) while others think that "approximately 15 per cent, give or take 5 per cent

either

way,

of

a 11

marriages

are

relatively infertile" (Philipp, 1975: 12).

infertile

or

Thus, although

the 30 per cent estimation for Singapore was tentative, it was a compromise among the above experts' estimations in order not to underestimate the target population size and to increase the chances of covering it as completely as possible.

With an estimated population size of 7,844, a

sample of 436 is recommended in order to obtain ±3 per cent confidence limits, at 95 per cent confidence level, when making inferences about the population (Arkin and Colton, 1862: 147). With all these prerequisites in mind, three sources of information

were

approached

in

the

preparation

of

the

44

Stella Quah

sampling frame (that is, complete lfst of the women in the target population from wh1 c h a random s ample can be drawn). These sources were:

the ma s ter regi st ry of fam i ly planning

acceptors

the

kept

Popu 1at ion

by

Board

Si ngapore

( SF PPB )

and

covering

Maternal & Chi ld Health cl ini cs of labou r ward s , ante-natal

Family

Planning a 11

and

gove rnment

in Si ngapore; the records

and post-nata l

c linics at the

Kandang Kerbau Hospi ta 1 and the A1exandra Hospi ta 1, the two main

maternity

twenty-on e

hospitals

private

in

Singapo re;

ob s t etr ics

and

a nd

r eco rds

from

gynaecology cli ni cs

in

Singa pore . The compilation of the sample frame revealed two main things.

Firstl y ,

it was c lear that the target population

s i ze had been overe stimated as it appeared to be much less than 30 per c ent. the records

This wa s evident from the scanning of

from the

largest source of

information,

that

is, the Mat ernal & Ch ild Health c l i n ics' reco rds contained in "Patient Cl i nic Cardsu, and provided by the SFPPB.

The

SFPPB

its

was

very

co-operative

in

assigning

s ome

of

otfi cers to do a computer searc h of those records for the year 1980.

The search identified only 129 qual ifying cases

in the SFPPB's 1980 registry. women

registered

acceptors,

and

that

that

It must be noted that 15,009

year

as

previously

new

family

registered

planning

contraceptive

users made 254,285 revisits at the clinics the same year (Information

Division,

Already

1975

by

acceptors Another

hospitals' of

there

reg i stered

210 cases

Minist ry the

SFPPB

obtained

1981:

Culture,

247,057

were

with

were

of

from

family (Wan, the

104).

planning

1976 :

9).

two maternity

records with the kind and efficient assistance

re 1evant

personne 1

under

the

supervision

of

the

respective hospital records officers. While the first problem was one of numbers, that is, qualifying cases were much less than expected, the second prob 1em

encountered

had

to

do

with

the

rather

poor

Appendix A

45

co-oreration on the part of the private specialist clinics . The twenty- one private specialist clinics listed in the 1981 telephone directory were invited to co-operate in this study by searching their own records, identifying the qualifying cases and approaching the respective patients to request their permission to be interviewed. Only five of them agreed to co-operate . Consequently , only 19 qualifying cases were obtained from private obstetrics and gynaecology clinics. In

sum,

358

cases

comprised

the

identified

target

population from which a random sample could be drawn. However , considering the small size of this population, all the 358 cases were i ne 1uded in the study and no samp 1 i ng was undertaken. the

total

Of these 358 women, 233 or 65 per cent of target population could be interviewed. The

majority of the rest

(118) could not be located at the

addresses indicated in their clinic or hospital records; they had moved to unknown addresses and no forwarding addresses were available.

Only 7 of the 240 who could be

contacted, refused to be interviewed. The data collection by means of personal interviews began on 15 November 1981 and ended on 30 Apri 1 1982. A team of ten female interviewers was specially trained for this purpose. Each interview was conducted at the 1 respondent s home and in the language of the respondent 1 s choice . After

the

interviews were completed ,

the data were

coded and stored directly into magnetic tape for computer analysis. The data analysis was undertaken using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) (Nie et al., 1975) and the National University of Singapore IBM 4341 computer.

Parametric and non-parametric tests were applied to test the assumed correlations between variables and their impact on postponement of the first child . In a subsequent phase, the data were analysed using the factor

46 Stel la Quah This paper covers only the data analys is procedure. pertain ing to the discus sion of traditi on and modernity in marriage and in the choice of delaying the first child .

APPENDIX B:

QUESTIOMMAIRE

WHO DELAYED PARENTHOOD SURVEY 1981

ResPOndent Address

Interviewer Interview completed on Day

Month

Time

Reasons tor not Interviewing

1st visit 2nd visIt Jrd vis it

Study ID

•••• •• ••• •. ••• •••••••••• ••••• •••• et-

Car d No.

• ••••••••• ••• ••.•••••••• • ••• • •• • • ct-4

Respondent No. - - - - - --

••••• • ••• • •••• ••• •••••••••••••••• CI- HUSBANO

"·

e. c. o. E. F.

c. H,

I, J, 1( ,

l. N.

N.

o. P,

C2- !J3-34 > WIFE

~00

or less ••• • • • •

01

01

-o1 601 801 1,001 1, 201 1,•01 1,601 1, 801 2,001 2, 201 2, . 01 2 , 601 2 ,80 1 },001 },201

- 600 • • •• •• ••

02

02

800 ••• • ••• • 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800 2 , 000 2,200 2 , • 00 2,600 2 , 800 3,000 },200 or MOre

0}

03

()I

()I

05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

05 06 07 08

-

C201-34 )

09

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Tllonlr. y~ very IIUCII for your co-()C)eret lon. Are tll.,.. I ~ ITE C.

tor the correl11tlon between perceived hea lth risks

and major disadvantages of postponement . 25

Statistically

significant correlations

use of contraceptives

and

were

11lso found

the wife's education

betw_, the

(Garna =-.330>; and

the use of contraceptives and monthly Income Boulton, M,G,

(1983 )

Ch ildren. Bulatao,

On Being A Mother ,

London:

R.A.

Vol .

The Future o f Marriage .

(1975)

2.

New York:

Bantam Books.

A St udy of Women With Pre- school

Tavls t ock, The

Ph il ippin es.

Value

of

Ch ildren .

Honolulu:

A Cross-na ti onal

Eas t-West

Population

Study.

Institute,

East-West Canter . Call an ,

V, J,

( 1986)

"The Impact of

the First Birth:

Married and S i ngle

Women Pref erring Child lessness , One Child, or Two Chi ldren" ,

Journal

of Marriage and the Faml ly, 48, 261-269, Chang, Ch en Tung

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