Canberra, ACT : The Australian National University
Doi
Abstract
This thesis is an attempt to study the fertility behaviour in
terms of childspacing practices among rural and urban Thai women.
Birth intervals in relation to educational level, contraceptive use,
current place of residence and age at the time of the survey are
examined by life table techniques. Data used are a subset of the
National Survey of Fertility, Mortality and Family Planning in
Thailand, 1979.
The analysis showed that rural women are more likely to have a
subsequent birth after the third birth than are urban women. The
length of the second and third birth intervals of rural women are
longer than that of urban women. For the fourth and fifth birth
intervals, rural women have shorter intervals. A smaller proportion
of the younger cohort in both rural and urban areas have subsequent
births; the younger women also have longer birth intervals than the
older women.
Education is shown to have a negative effects on childspacing
even after controlling the age of women. More educated women are less
likely to have a subsequent birth than less educated women. The
longer birth interval of more educated women in both rural and urban
areas is apparent at higher birth orders. Women who have ever used
contraception have a smaller proportion with a subsequent birth after
the second birth for urban women and after the third birth for rural
women. After the second birth, The length of birth interval of ever
users in the two areas are longer than those of never users