The determinants of the intentions to stop childbearing after having 3-4 surviving children: a case study of Ghana, Kenya and Zimbabwe

Joseph Amoah, University of Helsinki

Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for Ghana (2003), Kenya (2003) and Zimbabwe (2005-06) are used to examine the socio-economic factors that affect intentions of birth cessation amongst currently married women with 3-4 surviving children. The dependent variable is the wish to stop childbearing and the explanatory variables include age, education, area of residence, sex composition of children and religion. The countries have experienced significant fertility declines since the mid-1980s, with current fertility rates roughly in the neighbourhood of four. Despite the similarity in fertility trends, logistic regression models reveal that some of the socio-economic factors have different effects on intentions to stop births amongst the countries. Generally though, educated mothers are significantly more likely to stop procreation as compared to their uneducated counterparts, whereas rural and Muslim women are significantly less likely to stop childbearing as compared to their urban and Christian colleagues in all the three countries.