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  • Title: The value and cost of children in changing societies.
    Author: Bulatao RA.
    Journal: Draper Fund Rep; 1982 Dec; (11):16-9. PubMed ID: 12264599.
    Abstract:
    The values and costs of children must be balanced by communities and societies as well as by parents. As communities and societies will bear many of the costs of children, they have an important stake in the decisions couples make about family size. Governments need to better understand the considerations contributing to these decisions if they are to exert any influence on them. 6 major values cover most of those cited in a major cross-national study that included several thousand interviews in both developing and developed countries: children provide economic assistance; the continuity of the family depends on children; it is important to have children for social reasons; children are companions for their parents and a source of affection; the bond between husband and wife may be cemented by children; and children satisfy a variety of psychological motives. Among rural families in many developing countries children have an economic value. Children could be economic assets in rural areas if parents could keep them working for the household long enough, but this is more and more difficult to do. Some analysts have concluded that the average child costs its parents more than the child produces, even in a peasant setting. The actual costs of maintaining children may not be large in peasant settings, yet relative to incomes these costs are considerable and significant. Some parents may expect to recoup their investment in children by receiving support from the children in old age, but the support aged parents actually receive may be considerably less than expectations. The decline in the economic assistance that children provide and the increasing sense among parents that children restrict their other activities are 2 major aspects of what has been termed the "transition in the value of children." This transition involves a liberation of children from toil and a liberation of parents from too many children so that they can pursue their own interests. Even when children are uneconomical, they continue to provide psychological and social values to their parents. These values change in the course of the transition in the value of children, but they increase rather than decrease in importance. Several aspects of socioeconomic development affect the economic contributions that children make. These include education, rising incomes, and urbanization.
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