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In the preceding issue the author confined his analysis of administration to statements of fact and relations. This approach defined the science of administration, which gives us an understanding of the variables and of the laws of their interaction. But the elements of this science, as represented by his original definition and conception of administrative action, lend themselves well to translation into the applied science of administration, with which the following essay is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 relationship between female work force participation and fertility has been well documented for United States whites and samples from other countries. It has been asserted that the fertility differential between working and non working females is a result of the more frequent use of contraceptives by the working females. This paper has two purposes. First, the relationship between work and fertility be investigated for both white and black females. Second, the relationship between female work and fertility is found to be strong and essentially the same for blacks as for whites. The only relationship found between female work and contraceptive use was among women of zero parity. This finding was weak, however, and required tenuous assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pregnancy termination intervals, i.e., live birth to live birth (LB-LB), live birth to fetal loss (LB-FL), and fetal loss to live birth (FL-LB), are analyzed prospectively between 1966 and 1970 in a rural population (117,000) of Bangladesh. Results indicate that the mean LB-LB interval was almost 30 months, the LB-FL interval 27 months, and the FL-LB interval 18 months. In addition, postpartum amenorrhea was estimated to be about 13-14 months, and the time added by a fetal loss toa LB-LB interval about 15 months. No relationship was found between LB-LB intervals and the number of living or dead children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the 1970 National Fertility Study, the trend in the initiation of contraception prior to the first pregnancy is examined. This trend is of interest because of its relationship to the tempo of family-building. Using data from a recent marriage cohort, it is shown that use before the first pregnancy is related to age at marriage, age at termination of first pregnancy and the probability of having a premarital conception. For women first married during the decade of the 1960's, there was a substantial increase in the proportion using contraception before the first pregnancy. This trend is found among both white Catholics and white non-Catholics, but not among blacks. An examination of the specific method used by women using contraception before the first pregnancy reveals a shift from reliance on the traditional methods of diaphragm, condom and douche by the earlier birth cohorts to the use of the pill by the more recent cohorts. An appendix examines the reliability of various measures of the interval of first use of contraception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on results of several World Fertility Survey. The catholicity of scope is also revealed in the ways people must cope with different audiences. Some of the output must be cast in the form of national totals to provide appropriate ammunition for journalists and politicians, some of it takes the fancy biometric form of life tables of fecundability and contraceptive efficacy; and some of it is cloaked in the language of the testing of sociological hypotheses. One regrettable byproduct of the excessive ambition is that it takes a very long time to finish each study and get the book out; the record is almost as blemished in this regard as the national vital statistics. Now time considerations should not bulk large in the minds of those concerned solely with adding to the sum total of human knowledge, sub specie aeternitatis and all that, but they surely matter for data which are also designed to serve those responsible for practical problems and programs. The problems of multiplicity of purpose pervade the realm of social analysis as well.

In the present experiments the changes that occur in the central and peripheral lymphoid organs during a first pregnancy in the mouse have been followed up in BALB/c females (H-2d) mated either to males of the same inbred strain or to C3H/Bi males, a strain diifering at the major histocompatibility locus (H-2k). Three parameters were examined: weight, morphology and DNA synthesis. The results to be presented strengthen existing evidence that sensitization of the female to foetal transplantation antigens of paternal origin may occur during a first pregnancy and suggest that this process develops at least in part via the lymph nodes draining the uterus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes two studies, out of total five, which were done on analyzing child spacing patterns and orientation. Some new data are added with these previous researches of this family phenomena. Those five studies were made in Utah County, Utah, during the late 1930's; in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, during the early 1950's; in Defiance County, Ohio, during the middle 1950's; in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the late 1950's; and in Salt Lake and Utah Counties, Utah, during the early 1960's. The research method, now known as "record linkage," was pioneered and partially developed by this series of investigatiofis. It consists of matching certain sets of records so that identifiable couples can be studied longitudinally according to the listed data as well as new data revealed via the matching process. In this research, marriage, birth, and divorce records have been used. A total of eighteen summary points have been made based on these studies. Some of these points suggest: that overall spacing intervals vary directly with order of birth and inversely with number of children in the family; that most married couples commence their families relatively soon after the wedding; that some first births come very soon after the wedding, giving evidence of premarital conception; and that early marriage and early trend to go together.

This article presents brief summaries of various articles, related to family life and marriage, previously published in several periodicals. One article presents a report of preliminary descriptive findings from a Ford Foundation-supported survey of fertility and its control in Israel. The authors report the extent of contraception and induced abortion practices of 3006 Jewish women who gave birth in one of 23 Israeli hospitals sometime during the period from August, 1959 through March 1960. Most births to Jewish mothers take place in these hospitals. An interview questionnaire was administered by nurses to the women, usually during the three-four days following delivery. The author, a caseworker, offers her professional advice on treating "marital role reversal" and discusses a successfully treated case. Recent marked social changes particularly in family life require child welfare agencies to reexamine the nature of the children under their care, available foster homes, and the community role they play in treating and placing children. Adoptive families are subjected to certain pressures in their efforts to meet the needs of their adopted children. In addition, foster parents have special needs of their own which have led them to consult an adoption agency. In particular many seem to feel some need to deny the differences of adoptive and biological parenthood.

Most high school students know in a general way what causes pregnancy, how long it lasts, and bow babies are born. Nature provides them with the physical equipment and the emotional urges necessary to achieve pregnancy long before the American culture provides them with the economic and emotional maturity required to rear the children they may produce. This being the case, boys and girls need a functional knowledge of the processes concerned in pregnancy and, more important than that; an understanding of its significance in the lives of the people most intimately involved; namely, the mother-to-be, the father-to-be, child-to-be, and the grandparents-to-be. Students want to understand multiple births and the differences between fraternal and identical twins and triplets. They are interested in knowing about embryonic development, about the size of the embryonic body and the degree of development which marks the transition from embryo to fetus. Most students are fascinated by the knowledge that the embryonic heart begins to beat on about the twenty-fifth day following conception, usually before the mother-to-be knows that she is pregnant.

Today's family living teacher is faced increasingly with the growing concern about illicit pregnancies among high school and college girls. The drop-outs or "temporary transfers," the conferences in confidence and the protruding profiles of their female students provide teachers with ample evidence of such pregnancies. It is well known that the total number of females aged 10-14 has increased markedly during the last five years, due to the high birth-rate that commenced in and has continued since 1946. What is not so well known is that this age group, which includes junior high girls, was responsible for a slightly smaller proportion of all illicit births in 1959 (2.1%) than in 1938 (2.3%). To look only at the distribution of illicit births among given age groups can be misleading, however, due to the fluctuations in the percentage of all single females who are in any one age group and due to the much higher proportion of all single females who are teenagers. Hypocrisy is compounded when at the same time youth is admonished to grow up and be adult evidences of adult sexual laxness grow.

This article presents a stereotyped record of discussion regarding the issue of premarital sexual behavior, at a meeting of the American Association of Marriage Counselors (AAMC) in Columbus, Ohio on April 19, 1953. Recognition of the relationship between sex and conception is an important matter that must have concerned primitive man as he achieved some culture. When he became aware of the fact that conception and sex were associated, there must have been an effort by his women to seize upon any device to decrease constant childbearing. In the counseling work, women create pretexts to avoid intercourse because of fear of undesired pregnancy. This factor has undoubtedly been potent in the creation of family attitudes unfavorable to sex. Psychological studies of personality structure are still admittedly exceedingly inadequate, but they have contributed to a significant weakening of older rigid thinking about requiring sex abstinence of young people. Certain special studies of human sex behavior have done a great deal to sharpen thinking as to what the real problems in human sex behavior are, as contrasted with those assumed to exist as a result of cultural heritage and because of the front the society felt obliged to keep up to preserve conventional status.

This article presents a criticism of the Bellman police service rating scale. In his "Police Service Rating Scale," writer Arthur Bellman points a direction toward the increase in objectivity in measurement of police functioning. He has presented his instrument in a commendable spirit, recognizing that it is "by no means a finished product," and further that "it is only in the beginning and experimental stages and needs to be subjected to practical use in order that further improvements may be made and its ultimate value determined." There are, however, some matters involving theoretical and conceptual considerations which appear worth presenting as commentary to Bellman's study with a purpose of increasing the final success of scaling in the general field of police administration, but which emphasize the experimental nature of the Bellman Scale as it is offered at the present time. That Bellman is seeking to increase the realism of evaluating police administration indicates a faith in newer techniques of approach to a subject which has resisted traditional academic penetration.

The article discusses the possible influence of the group upon the mental processes of the individual. It explores the social influence, and reflects vagueness in the social sciences with respect to important matters towards ideals of precision in other disciplines. It also discusses issues such as personification in the group mind and usage of institutional fallacy which are trying to examine and learn what sort of reality the referents of these words might actually have. It is concluded that the interpretation of action will be a help in translating the working program of group dynamics into more rational form.

Occurrence of subsequent pregnancies is often used to measure success or failure in programs for young mothers. This paper reviews methodological problems involved in measuring rates of subsequent pregnancies, proposes the use of a life-table method, and illustrates its use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents seasonal patterns of conception in New York City and discusses the implications of these patterns. It is intended to investigate variations by month of conception of factors associated with pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of psychological causality, morality, justice, physical causality, skepticism, animism, and the ability to take other perspectives were individually administered to 41 kindergarten and first-grade children. An orthogonally rotated principal-components analysis indicated four factors. Factor I, social judgment, included measures of morality, justice, skepticism, and perspectives. The second and third factors were identified as psychological and physical causality, respectively. Factor IV was identified as Conceptions of Life and is discussed in another study (5). The results offered some support for Piaget's views that the attribution of physical and psychological causation have different bases and sources of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity of Leary's interpretation of overt interpersonal behavior for a nonpsychiatric population. Subjects were 102 white pregnant females to whom MMPIs were given at monthly intervals during the last three months of pregnancy. Pooled ratings of each subject's behavior were obtained from other subjects by means of Interpersonal Check Lists. Differential agreement was obtained between a person's overt behavior (MM PT ratings) and the pooled ratings by type of behavior, with agreement ranging from 76.3 per cent for dominant behavior to zero per cent for submissive behavior. Positive correlations also were found between the sets of standard love scores. The results demonstrate the utility of the methodology investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the psychological analysis to the public's conception of historical figures and the perception of the psychologist Abraham Lincoln. The lists presented were identical for each sub-group. The six "military leader" and seven "father" words thus selected were listed in random order and presented to another group of 42 sophomores. It has been proposed that Lincoln may assume a Christlike significance for many people. a third group of 80 sophomores was given the original list of 68 objectives. Historians appear at times to find it difficult to account for the popular attention given certain historical figures or events. The present study has been conducted merely as a beginning step toward such an exploration of people's perceptions of history. The great interest in Lincoln and the Civil War may in part stem from the opportunity history there provides for an extension of intra-psychic conflicts and preoccupations. The present study has been conducted merely as a beginning step toward such an exploration of people's perceptions of history.

The clinical features and the investigations in a patient who developed impetigo herpetiformis in two successive pregnancies are reported. In the first pregnancy A.C.T.H. controlled the skin eruption, but, the patient developed signs of sodium retention and was delivered prematurely of a stillborn infant. During the second pregnancy the patient was treated with prednisolone which controlled the skin eruption without evidence of side effects. On this occasion biochemical evidence of placental insufficiency was obtained and because of this a caesarean section was performed at the 34th week of gestation and a healthy male child was delivered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A questionnaire was prepared and pit to women who had attended hospital for acne vulgaris in an attempt to assess the effect of marriage, pregnancy and the parturition on this disease. The difficulty of conducting such a survey is shown by the fact that although 827 addresses were collected, over 1100 letters were sent out, and almost 100 homes visited personally, only 415 replies were finally collected. Marriage brought about improvement of acne vulgaris in 43.4% of women. 53%, however, noted no change in their skin condition. Only 3.6% deteriorated following matrimony. The wide:.y held belief of a universally beneficial influence of marriage alone on this complaint has not been confirmed by this survey. Pregnancy, on the other hand, has a markedly beneficial influence on acne vulgaris according to this survey. The largest percentage of patients improved after the birth of a child. The impression is gained that this cure of acne vulgaris is due to a finally established ideal hormonal balance, only achieved by the stimuli of pregnancy and parturition. Other aetiological factors would appear to be only of secondary importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article determines the possibility of a relationship between intent toward first conception and certain factors in wives' backgrounds and physical and emotional experiences of pregnancy. The sample consisted of students' wives who were residing in barrack-apartments on the Michigan State College campus in the spring of 1949. For this analysis 212 wives were classified into three groups according to their stated intent toward conception as indicated by their responses to a questionnaire dealing with the pregnancy experience. These three groups studied consisted of eighty-one wives who had unsuccessfully tried to avoid conception, fifty-five wives who had neither tried to avoid nor tried to effect conception, and seventy-five wives who had planned conception. Sixty-seven per cent of wives indicated that they had at the time of marriage decided to wait awhile before having children. Eighty- four wives conceived within first six months of marriage and 127 conceived after first six months of marriage. First six months were characterized by most unplanned pregnancy.

The article presents the use of various methods of contraception. The connection between the birth rate and the effectiveness of the particular contraceptive practices is not clear. More specifically, the data are still incomplete on two vital points: first, the actual acceptance and practice of conception control in its different forms and second, the extent to which such practice may be a factor in the changing birth rate. The first of these constitutes the subject of this article. Although the actual practice of family limitation is so little understood, this is due, on the whole, to the basic difficulty of studying the subject, rather than to any failure to recognize the need for such study. Indeed, the research which has been done and is being done on this point is both considerable and important. It is biased, however, and consequently unreliable to the extent of this bias, by its nature as testimony. Its data have consisted, in one form or another, of individual reports of reproductive history and contraceptive practice. As such research progresses, it perfects techniques for lessening the bias of testimony: mnemonic devices to aid the individual in reconstructing the past and psychological tricks of indirection to probe through the subjective interpretation to the objective fact.

The basic problem in the evaluation of family planning programmes is estimating the impact of programme contraception. The article focuses on a stochastic model for estimating net delay of next conception per segment of contraception. By a "segment" of contraception is meant the period of usage of a method between its initiation and its next interruption through accidental pregnancy, switch to another method, or stopping contraception. The article offers a more theoretical analysis aimed at clarifying some of the conditions under which programme contraception has greater or less impact. Contraception affects fertility by delaying the next conception, thereby shortening the residual reproductive period when additional pregnancies and births are a possibility. By suitably pairing runs of the model, one can construct experiments in which the only differentiating factor is use and non-use of a specified contraceptive, and, by differentiating the corresponding mean durations to next conception, compute the net delay of next conception produced by that contraceptive.

Variations in the time required for next conception by outcome of the preceding pregnancy, and the age of woman, are studied for Taiwanese women. Pregnancy intervals defined as the period between the end of one pregnancy and the beginning of the next, is taken as a measure of the time required for the next conception. The averages and variances of pregnancy intervals are estimated from reports of pregnancies occurring in a probability sample of 2,443 married women, aged 20-39, living in Taichung (Taiwan) in 1962. The effects of `truncation bias' and `memory bias' on the two moments of pregnancy intervals arc estimated indirectly by cross-classifying women according to their ages at interview and their ages at the beginning (or end) of each pregnancy interval. The of Post-partum amenorrhoea are, then, estimated indirectly from the moments of intervals. The effects of truncation bias and memory bias are compensatory in this sample. In the absence of contraception women, on an average, took longer to conceive following a live birth than following a foetal death. The time taken for next conception increases as women become older irrespective of the outcome of the preceding pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data on 1898 menstrual cycles, for 241 married women, were analysed by means of a quantal regression programme. The locations of the day of ovulation was determined by the basal body temperature method. Estimates were obtained of the risk of conception from an act of coitus on each day, as measured from the day of ovulation. The relationship between fecundability and coital frequency was also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several aspects of stochastic models as they relate to the monthly probability of conception are explored. In particular a method of obtaining the required probability distributions proceeding from a rather general description of human behaviour is presented. The number of acts of intercourse per month is considered as a random variable rather than being taken as a fixed constant. The pattern of intercourse is characterized mathematically. The construction of the probability function is presented and illustrated numerically. The Weibull distribution is shown to illustrate considerable flexibility in describing these differing patterns of intercourse quantitatively. TI resulting probabilities of conception vary considerably under changing parameter values even when the expected number of acts of intercourse is taken to be nearly equal. The relevance of these considerations is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals only with the first two of these, which, unlike duration of pregnancy, present unusual problems of estimation. The literature of the past few years contains a number of attempts to deduce values for these determinants from observational data, that is, from observed series of birth intervals, but it is one of the more frustrating aspects of such demographic analyses that the significance of observations often depends as much upon the way in which the data were collected as on the values themselves. Sets of birth intervals can be obtained in a quite remarkable variety of ways and analyzed with correspondingly varied virtuosity. The fecundabilities calculated in various tables are considerably lower than those, which have been derived from other studies. This is largely because of the inclusion in the series of the full range of women in the population; the correction of the harmonic effect also leads to a lower value. A remarkable feature of this series is that some 4% of all intervals were stated as being longer than six years. Intervals of this length are, of course, very much rarer in studies confined to women of high attained parity.

This article describes a simple study of the chance of conception assuming a fixed-length menstrual cycle, a specific probability distribution for the day of ovulation, and a broad and a narrow fertile period. Eight different patterns of intercourse throughout the cycle are considered with frequency of intercourse ranging between 5 and 12 times per cycle. Results are given in terms of chance of conception and in terms of waiting times until conception. A number of factors contribute to the probability of conception: the frequency and timing of intercourse, the viability of the sperm and ovum, and the total sperm count among others. The length of the menstrual cycle is far from constant, and the distribution of time of ovulation is at best a rough approximation to reality. In addition, the menstrual period does not have a constant duration of four days as assumed in the model. An assumption, implicit in this approach, has been that heightened coital frequency does not reduce the sperm count enough to affect virility. These problems could probably be handled satisfactorily using available information.

A sample of 3,786 marriages, recorded in the parish registers of 77 rural and semi-rural parishes in 24 English counties during the period 1540-1835, is investigated. 49% of the marriages can be followed through to a maternity recorded in a baptism-entry in the baptism register of the same parish, i.e. the parish of marriage. Of these brides traced to a maternity, roughly one-third had their maternity recorded within eight and a half months of marriage and were therefore probably pregnant at marriage. When allowance is made for delayed baptisms, and for brides whose pre-maritally conceived pregnancy terminated in an abortion or stillbirth and hence went unrecorded, the proportion of `traced' brides pregnant may approach one-half. Turning to the 51% of marriages untraced to maternities in this investigation, for a large number (perhaps two-thirds) the most likely explanation is the removal of the married couple from the parish of marriage before maternity occurred, for reasons unconnected with the bridal condition. It is concluded that there is direct and detailed evidence in the parish registers that more than one-sixth of all brides were pregnant at marriage, and that it can be reasonably deduced from the direct evidence that in fact about one- third were pregnant. The proportion of brides pregnant in the earlier centuries (before 1700) appears to have been only about one-half of that in the later centuries. Regionally, the highest rate in both periods appears to have been in the northern four counties. The social interpretation of these bridal pregnancy rates poses many problems for the social historian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on birth interval dynamics. A birth interval free from pregnancy wastage may be viewed as the sum of three sub-intervals namely the period of post-partum amenorrhoea following a birth, the menstruating interval extending from the end of post-partum amenorrhoea to the next conception and the months of pregnancy leading to the next live birth. When the birth interval includes a pregnancy loss, then in addition to the above three components there is a fourth component, which will be termed time added by pregnancy wastage. This latter consists of the pregnancy leading to wastage, a month or more of post-abortion or post-stillbirth amenorrhoea, and a second menstruating interval. In a small minority of birth intervals the length of this fourth component is increased by the occurrence of two or more foetal losses. A basic understanding of birth intervals requires the ability to relate the central tendencies and variability of birth intervals to the means and variances of these four components.

The article discusses author's comment on the article "Some Comments on W.H. James's Article," by M. Henry in the November 1964 issue of the journal "Population Studies." M. Henry suggests modifications to the author's estimates to make them directly comparable with previous estimates. He concludes that there remains a disparity and to account for this he offers theoretical criticism of the methods used by the author in the study and objects to the values assigned to the mean duration of post-partum sterility. In modifying the author's estimates he considers the effect of spontaneous abortion. Author's study suggested that the probability of a woman's aborting might not increase much as she grows older. It seems possible that the apparent increase, or the greater part of it, could be explained as due to a statistical artifact. In any case it seems that M. Henry is providing an inappropriate factor to make the author's fecundability estimates comparable with earlier estimates based on conception waits.

It is informed that recent attempts to estimate the probability of pregnancy resulting from a single act of coitus and the length of the fertile period have depended on estimates of the mean fecundability of groups of married women not using contraceptive techniques. There are some points to note about fecundability estimates derived from conception delays: first, it is essential to ascertain a representative sample of women and second, cognisance must be taken of those matings which, although potentially fertile, have not produced a recognizable pregnancy. If they are ignored, fecundability will be overestimated. On the other hand, it seems proper to try to eliminate all women who are absolutely sterile from these considerations. Non-contraceptors have consistently yielded higher estimates even in the case of first pregnancies, and the reasons for this are not entirely clear. It is opined that there are a number of difficulties are associated with estimating fecundability from conception delay.

This article analyzes the relationships between pregnancy rates per hundred woman-years of exposure and annual birth rates per thousand population by means of a simple population model. The assumptions underlying this model are: the rate of pregnancies per hundred-woman years of non-contraceptive exposure; foetal mortality rate; and the average years of continuing fertility. It is shown that even with universal practice of contraception and with only two surviving children desired by the average couple, a high level of contraceptive effectiveness is required to reduce the birth rate to the level of the death rate.

The article discusses major changes in the marriage customs and in sex norms in contemporary American culture. The changes taking place in sex mores are clearly shown by the fact that unwed pregnancies among girls aged 15 to 19 have more than doubled within the last 20 years. Census data show that in 1940 there were 6.58 such pregnancies per 1,000 girls aged 15 to 19 years. In 1945 the rate was 8.55 per 1,000 girls, in 1950 it was 10.56, in 1955 it was 12.52, and in 1957 it was 13.11 per 1000 girls. The situation of the pregnant high school girl is a very difficult and traumatic one. In many cases the pregnancy was incurred without benefit of wedlock, and unwed motherhood lies in prospect. In other cases the marriage was a "shotgun" one, following discovery of pregnancy. In the remainder of teenage pregnancies, conception followed marriage, but often it was an unplanned "mistake." The pregnancy serves very seriously to disrupt the relations of the girl with her peers. If it is an unwed pregnancy, the girl is often snubbed or even ostracized by her friends. In all cases the pregnancy tends to prevent her from continuing in common pursuits and activities with them, and it invests her with a new set of hopes, fears, anxieties, and interests widely at variance with those of her friends.

Eight indices of satisfaction in marriage and eight clusters of marital experiences are presented. Their interretionships are discussed as exemplified in data gathered during the pregnancy period from 400 primiparous couples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family planning is presumed to contain the potential of yielding reduced rates of reproductive wastage. This effect has not yet been observed in the United States; nor has the relation of family planning to pregnancy loss been investigated. It is questionable as to whether or not loss rates, as conventionally computed, provide appropriate evaluative criteria for the early detection of the desired effect. The basis for this position is developed, following which are presented data relating to a necessary condition which must hold if the assumed relation is to be manifested. The tentative conclusion drawn is that the relationship appears real and that postpartum programs may hold greatest potential for its early demonstration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burgess and Cottrell reported data on "desire for children" and "marital adjustment." Marriage and family textbooks have typically misrepresented the data in citing it. As one example of six criticisms, Burgess and Cottrell warn that the data refer to couples married only a few years; failure to mention this leads to gross misinterpretations. Textbook reporting of these data raise questions about the adequacy of marriage and family textbooks and, indeed, textbooks in the social sciences generally. Possibly a tightly organized, collaboratively prepared text would permit more depth in scholarship behind each chapter than is possible when one author must cover a huge range of material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contains some results of a study about differential fertility according to profession in two Belgian cities. A differential procreation pattern has been observed with laborers, mere chants, employees, and leading classes. On an average, laborers are younger when marrying; they have a smaller-sized family; with them there is a greater proportion of premarital conceptions and less efficient birth control than in whatever other social group. With the leading classes the largest families are found together with higher efficient birth-control. Based on data of birth-registers and using the method of L. Henry, the present paper analyzes premarital conceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of abortion is usually seen as one of justifying a particular surgical operation on the assumption that great social loss is incurred by it. This approach leads to intractable administrative problems: rape is in principle impossible to prove, the paternity of a child is always in doubt, the probability of defective embryos is generally low, and the socioeconomic predicament of the supplicant has little power to move the men who sit in judgment. These difficulties vanish when one substitutes for the problem of permissive abortion the inverse problem of compulsory pregnancy. The latter is a special case of compulsory servitude, which the Western world has agreed, in principle, has no valid justification. Unfortunately, state legislatures are now in a process of setting up systems for the management of compulsory pregnancy. The experience of Scandinavia indicates that women do not accept bureaucratic management of their unwanted pregnancies; therefore we can confidently predict that the reform bills now going through our legislatures will have little effect on the practice of illegal abortion. Only the abolition of compulsory pregnancy will solve the erroneously conceived "abortion problem." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the availability of subsidized family-planning services to poor and near-poor fertile women aged 18 to 44, not desiring pregnancy, in the United States. Examination of data leads to the conclusion that subsidized services are inadequate; that neither state nor local governments are meeting the need; that hospitals and other public health facilities are providing negligible services; that the federal government, despite stated policy favoring the availability of family-planning services to all who want them, is providing minimal funding for the initiation and support of programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]