The Value of Children among Selected Communities in Southern Ethiopia A Comparative Study of Youths in Different Socio-economic Groups)
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Date
2012-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The present study attempted to investigate the current status of the valu e of children
(vaC) for parents and tried to answer the question, "why do people want children?" The
study also investigated the needs/satisfactions of having children and how these relate to
fertility-related attitude. A multistage stratified probability sampling was used to select a
sample size of 605 respondents consis ting of unm arried youths aged between 15-29 from
differen t socio-economic groups to examine regional similarities and differences on the
Vac. Responses about advantages of having ch ildren were collected and co mparisons
between the different socio-economic groups and sex were made. In addition multiple
regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between socio-economic and
demographic factors and the vac in one hand and the relationship between th e vac
and desired number of children on th e other hand. Comparisons across different socioeco
nomic groups and sex reflected changes in the perception of the different dim ensions
of vac (social/normative, econom ic/utilita rian and psychological/emotional) across
socio -eco nomic groups and between sexes . Res ults of the study showed that with
in creased education and income, children's social/normative value decrease while
increased household incom e alld expusure to media are associated with de creased
economic/ut ilitarian and increased psy chological/emotional values, resp ectively. Sex, on
the other hand, is p os itively associated with each of the dimensions of vacs, indicating
females' high expectations from children on each of the values. Regression analysis also
revea led that where children's social/normative and economic/utilitarian values assumed
important, f ertility desire was high whereas psychological/emotional vac is associated
with lower desired number of children. Finally, th e provision of old-age secu rity benefi ts,
un employment and health insurance was recommended to low er the existence of high
economic/utilitarian vac associated with high fertility desire.
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Keywords
valu e of children (voc)