Why do women have more children than they want? Understanding differences in women's ideal and actual family size in a natural fertility population

摘要

We develop and test a conceptual model of factors influencing women's ideal family size (IFS) in a natural fertility population, the Tsimane of Bolivia. The model posits affects of socioecology, reproductive history, maternal condition, and men's IFS. We test three hypotheses for why women may exceed their IFS despite experiencing socioeconomic development: (H₁) limited autonomy; (H₂) improved maternal condition; and (H₃) low returns on investments in embodied capital.