Can women remember how many children they have borne? Data from the east Caribbean
Brittain, A.W.
Social Biology 38(3-4): 219-232
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-766X PMID: 1801202 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.1991.9988789Document Number: 317041
A study of women's ability to recall the number of children ever borne found a very high level of self-reporting accuracy. 786 native women of St. Barthelemy, West Indies, resident for the 1954 census, were specifically under consideration. These women were aged 15 years and older after the French began keeping vital records in 1878. Their recall of the number of children borne was compared to the extremely accurate number of births registered in records of vital events. A mean 2.00 children/woman were registered, with standard deviation of 2.81, and a range of 0-17 live births. In general, women were well able to remember how many children they had borne, with very high agreement observed between the 2 measures. 5.68% of respondents made reporting errors of any kind, and the average difference between reported and recorded live births was 0.031 birth/woman. SPSS-X regression was then employed to examine the effects of woman's age, marital status, literacy status, and number of live children registered borne on the magnitude of difference between the 2 figures. The difference was significantly related to the number of live children borne and marital status, but not age or literacy. Those of high parity and those unmarried were more likely to make omissions when controlling the other variables. Study results suggest that linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, and/or sample decay may be more important sources of error than memory lapses. These former sources may or may not be easier to correct.