McCarthy J, Oni G A
Demography. 1987 May;24(2):279-90.
This paper proposes and carries out a two-stage analysis of the determinants of desired family size, using data gathered from a sample of women in the city of Ilorin, Nigeria. The analysis first focuses on differences between women who report numerical family size desires and those who report nonnumerical desires. Findings suggest that there are important differences between these two groups, but there is little variation in the actual number reported by those expressing numerical desires. Implications of these findings for survey design are discussed. In particular, the practice of forcing numerical responses by instructing interviewers to probe when women report nonnumerical desires is questioned.
本文提出并开展了一项针对理想家庭规模决定因素的两阶段分析，所使用的数据来自尼日利亚伊洛林市的女性样本。该分析首先聚焦于报告了具体数字的家庭规模理想的女性与报告了非具体数字理想的女性之间的差异。研究结果表明，这两组女性之间存在重要差异，但表达了具体数字理想的女性所报告的实际数字几乎没有变化。文中讨论了这些研究结果对调查设计的启示。特别是，对于通过指示访谈者在女性报告非具体数字理想时进行追问来强行获取具体数字回答的做法提出了质疑。
