Consistency Between Reproductive Preferences and Behavior: The Sri Lankan Experience

Data collected in the 1982 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Prevalence Survey and the 1985 Sri Lanka Contraceptive Survey, a follow-up study, were used to examine the reliability of respondents' preferences for additional children. At the aggregate level, consistency was remarkable: In 1982, 47 percent of women said they wanted more children and in 1985, 49 percent had more, for a slight excess of actual over wanted fertility. Even though inconsistencies existed, at the individual level preferences were moderately predictive of subsequent behavior. Unwanted fertility was related not only to the demographic characteristics of the women but also to disagreement with their husbands on desired fertility. More of those who believed that their husbands wanted additional children than those who believed otherwise reported births in the follow-up period. Nonusers of contraception were over three times more likely than contraceptors using modern methods to have had an unwanted birth.