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Family planning is not being practised in Wadi Turaba in western Saudi Arabia, which is a Bedouin community with different stages of settlement. Children are wanted in the family, and the more children, especially boys, the better the social status of the family in the community. The desire of a mother for more children does not appear to be affected by her age group, history of previous marriages or history of previous pregnancies.Knowledge about contraceptives practically does not exist, except on a small scale in the settled community. Every woman, following the Koranic teachings, weans her child exactly at the age of 2 years, which obviously leads to the spacing of births. In rather rare situations, coitus interruptus is practised. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is concerned with the problem of estimating the risk of conception, the risk of fatal loses and the length of the nonsusceptible period due to a fetal less using a model proposed by George [4] for the first livebirth interval, Algorithms are provided to obtain maximum likelihood estimates of the parameters of the model from complete, censored and grouped samples. The methods are illustrated using data on 554 Hutterito women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on social and spatial density effects on spacing behaviour in preschool children. Studies of social spacing in man and other animals have recently increased in number. In the lower density conditions of 50% group size, the children maintained close proximity to each other more often than expected by chance. Social factors predominate in density effects on spacing behaviour, that is, an optimum distance between individuals was maintained in a constant area regardless of numbers present. Social factors were crucial in non human primate studies which varied both environmental and social factors. Differences in social density were more potent in eliciting adjustments in spacing behaviour than spatial density differences.

The lengths of the "closed" intervals from the ith to the (i+1)th birth (X[sub i]) and of the "open" intervals since the most recent birth (U,) for women who have had exactly n births have been considered useful indicators of current changes in natality patterns. Particularly, it has been hoped that such data will provide information regarding the p.d.f. of chi[sub i], the corresponding interval that would be observed if there were infinite time for reproduction. Since X[sub i] and U[sub n] depend on the convolution of the p.d.f.'s for chi, (j =0, 1, ..., i) and on t (the duration of fecund marriage at the time of survey), a set of X[sub i] forms a truncated sample of the corresponding chi[sub i]. The U[sub n] also depend on analogous convolutions and on t. As a result, even given uniform t for all the subjects, a change in the p.d.f, of chi[sub i], such as a shift to the right, will not necessarily be reflected in observed data on X[sub i] or U[sub n]. This difficulty is not overcome by life table analysis except under highly restrictive assumptions. It is doubtful whether the current emphasis on securing such data is justified. Certainly, further investigation is needed to provide a better basis for the definition and analysis of interval data if they are to be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cet article traite de modèles probabilistes pour les intervalles intr-naissances. Nous dérivons les quatre premieres moments de la distribution des intervalles intr-naissances sous des conditions générales sur leurs composantes. La distribution exacte est obtenue un cas ccntinu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on sibling position as a factor in psychiatric illness and prognosis in a military population. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the possible effects of sibling interrelationships on adjustment in adulthood. This study examines the relationships between birth order and: admission to a psychiatric sick list, disposition with regard to discharge from service, and post-hospitalization prognosis. The subjects in this study were part of a larger contingent of first-term Navy enlistees followed longitudinally during their first four-year enlistment.

The article investigates the connection between birth order and children having learning disabilities. The Psychological Services Division of the Memphis City Schools selected thirty-eight children as learning disabled and expecting placement in special education classes. The study found out that children with learning disabilities tend to come from huge families, although significant variables including socioeconomic status, spacing of children in the families and the number of actual pregnancies remain to be considered.