studies investigating fertility decline in developing countries often adopt measures of determinants of fertility behavior developed based on observations from developed countries, without adapting them to the realities of the study setting. as a result, their findings are usually invalid, anomalous or statistically non-significant. this commentary draws on the research article by moeeni and co...

widespread changes in women’s roles in society, in turn, leads to their increasing participation in the social arena, therefore, by increasing women’s autonomy in different aspects of life, they are more likely to reach to higher positions and status than they were in earlier decades. this situation provides the context for changes in fertility ideals (fertility behavior, desires, and ideals) o...

Despite extensive research, doubts remain regarding the degree of correspondence between prior stated fertility preferences and subsequent fertility behavior. Preference instability is a factor that potentially undermines predictiveness. Furthermore, if other predictors of fertility substantially explain fertility, then knowledge of preferences may contribute little to explaining or predicting ...

The simultaneity of decreasing fertility and changing family structures in many European countries has led to a growing interest in fertility behavior in its relation to different family structures. The growing prevalence of higher-order unions (and the consequences for parity progression arising therefrom) is one example of an ongoing change in fertility behavior. Childbearing is not restric...

Studies investigating fertility decline in developing countries often adopt measures of determinants of fertility behavior developed based on observations from developed countries, without adapting them to the realities of the study setting. As a result, their findings are usually invalid, anomalous or statistically non-significant. This commentary draws on the research article by Moeeni and co...

BACKGROUND Extensive research in both developed and developing countries has shown that preferences and intentions for future childbearing predict behavior. However, very little of this research has examined high-fertility contexts in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, the factors that increase or decrease correspondence between fertility desires and behavior in these settings are not well unde...