Search Results
Title: Family Size Preferences in Early Adulthood: Measurement Error and Dimensionality
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
Rybinska, Anna |
|
Family Size Preferences in Early Adulthood: Measurement Error and Dimensionality M.A. Thesis, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) Keyword(s): Childbearing; Data Quality/Consistency; Expectations/Intentions; Modeling, Structural Equation Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. In this study, the link between childbearing desires, intentions, and behavior is revisited using a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach in which I test if childbearing desires and intentions are distinct constructs while accounting for measurement error. Using data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth I estimate latent intentions and desires and then use the results to estimate the odds of having a(nother) child within the next three years. The results indicate that measurement error causes major bias in the relationship between childbearing intentions, desires and behavior. In models that account for measurement error, the effects of childbearing intentions and desires on childbearing behavior are twice as large as in models that assume perfect measurement. In addition, I find that while childbearing intentions and desires are distinct constructs, when used independently they might predict childbearing behavior with similar precision. Combined these results suggest that researchers interested in childbearing behaviors need to account for both measurement error and the distinction between childbearing intentions and desires in their models or risk severe bias in their results. |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
Rybinska, Anna. Family Size Preferences in Early Adulthood: Measurement Error and Dimensionality. M.A. Thesis, Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2016. |