Size of Family of Orientation, Birth Order, and Fertility Values: A Reexamination

Previous research has established that family size preferences vary directly with the size of the family of orientation. This relationship was found to be stronger among firstborn women and among women who felt close to their families. Data from 635 high school sophomores are used to test two of these propositions. Partial support is found for the relationship between family size preferences and size of family of orientation. However it is suggested that this relationship holds most strongly under conditions of little intergenerational change in lifestyle a limitation not noted in earlier work. (authors)