Future Fertility Intentions in the Philippines: Does Women's Employment Status or Community Context Matter?

Chi Chiao, National Cheng Kung University
Chin-Chun Yi, Academia Sinica

Women's future fertility behavior is significantly associated with their fertility intentions. Among individual factors accounted for the fertility intention, women's employment status has been documented to be a salient factor. Since fertility involves conjugal aspects, various spousal characteristics are shown to affect the fertility outcome. In addition, the community context is speculated to facilitate or to constrain women's fertility. However, much less studies have focused on analyzing the community context. An attempt is thus made to examine the relative importance of individual, spousal and community factors in explaining women's fertility intentions. Data are taken from the 1998 and 2003 Demographic and Health Surveys in the Philippines. Multilevel logistic models show that women's future childbearing intentions differ substantially by their current employment status as well as by different spousal characteristics. But, the magnitudes of these relationships decrease considerably after adjusting for various community controls. The importance of community context is supported.