Family Design: Marital Sexuality, Family Size, and Contraception

Why do contraceptive practices work for some couples and not for others? How do couples decide the number of children they want? What are the implications of family design in terms of the "population explosion?" Family Design is a thoroughly documented study undertaken by Social Research, Inc., for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Based on intensive interviews with 409 husbands and wives, it applies the framework of family sociology to a problem that has previously been studied mainly from the demographic point of view. Using social class, conjugal role organization and religion as control variables, the author explores in detail role concepts of husband and wife, sexual relations, cultural determinants, family size norms, personal motivations and contraceptive practices, and relates these factors to family planning. Family Design is an accurate barometer of current attitudes toward family planning for professional family planning workers, social scientists and everyone who is alert to the implications of family size and population trends in our society. Lee Rainwater is professor emeritus of sociology at Harvard University and research director of the Luxembourg Income Study. He was one of the original founders of Transaction. He has been associate editor of Journal of Marriage and the Family and on the review board of Sociological Quarterly. He was written various books and in many professional journals.