The determinants of birth intervals: a qualitative approach from Punjab, India

✍ Scribed by Huber, Ulli S.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 170 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1077-3495
• DOI: 10.1002/ijpg.263

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The determinants of birth intervals have been a focus of attention because of the strong relationship between birth intervals, mortality and fertility. This paper criticises the conventional hazard model approach to the determinants of birth intervals on the grounds of, first, the widespread assumption that birth intervals are planned and go according to plan, and secondly, a common failure to situate birth intervals within the social structures in which they take place. In‐depth interviews with four Punjabi couples about their birth interval related experiences are used to illustrate an alternative approach, which centres on an exploration of the roots of each action influencing birth intervals. This exploration takes into account that not all human actions are planned to maximise the actor's benefit, but that they can also be normative, habitual, or emotion‐driven; and it disentangles the two‐way relationship between birth interval related actions and social structures. Birth intervals are thought to be unlikely to develop according to a master plan because of their complexity, which stems from the considerable number of actions and actors involved in creating them. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.