The sociobiological aspects of the National Survey on Fecundity and Fertility in Belgium

Abstract

In 1966, a National Survey on Fecundity and Fertility was organized in Belgium. Approximately 3000 married women under 41 years of age and living with their husbands were interviewed and asked about their reproductive histories. The present paper records the sociobiological aims and methods and some preliminary results of this survey. The aims were to:(1) study the influences of contraception on human needs and qualities, in this case mainly potential fecundity;(2) study the influence of attempts to increase the potential fecundity level in modern society on fecundity gene frequencies;(3) study the influences of the overall socio-cultural environment on fecundity and fertility variables with particular reference to differences in social status in Western society;(4) analyse the role of social assortment of fecundity and fertility variables on the biological structure, and possibly the composition, of modern populations.A relatively large, but far from complete body of data has been collected on a number of individual fecundity and fertility variables, on the medical processes employed to increase fecundity, on contraception, and on a number of conventional sociological and demographic variables.The principles underlying the present approach to the study of fecundity are explained, and a few preliminary results for one of the general fecundity classifications are shown.The infofmation collected on contraception has been qualitatively analysed and a correction and evaluation method is described. Data on the use of the different contraceptive methods show that substantial sections of the Belgian population are limiting their family size in a way which is inefficient, from both sexual and familial standpoints. 370 R. L. Cliquet

Knowledge, practice and effectiveness of contraception in Belgium

“…The results obtained with these methods have been checked by an analysis of the basic percentage distributions and by standard statistical procedures such as the calculation of chi 2 and also, in the case of the more recently processed data, of gamma. As shown in previous papers (Cliquet, 1968a(Cliquet, , 1969a, a substantial percentage of the spontaneous answers relating to contraceptive practices must be treated with scepticism. In order to secure more reliable results the percentages and statistical parameters have been calculated only for those subjects whose spontaneous answers on contraceptive practice in general ('ever used') appeared to be accurate or could be checked (Categories A, B, C and E) of the classification concerning the use of contraception in general (Cliquet, 1969a, Table 5).…”

“…This is indicated by the fact that the proportion of affirmative answers is 50% for those subjects who have been classified in Category A of our general contraception classification (Cliquet, 1969a, Table 5) but only 20 %, 26 % and 1 % respectively for the corrected Categories B, C and D. This also means that this part of the sample is not completely representative of the total sample; higher educational and occupational strata, for instance, being more strongly represented. Among the members of the lower educational and social classes spontaneously affirmative answers amounted to only 29-31 %, whereas among the highest levels the corresponding figures were 50-58%.…”

“…The biological and sociobiological aims and 41 methods, as well as some preliminary results of this survey, have been published in this journal (Cliquet, 1969a).…”

“…In 1966 a national survey on fecundity and fertility was organized in Belgium by the Population and Family Study Centre of the Ministry of Public Health and the Family (Morsa, 1967;Cliquet, 1967). The biological and sociobiological aims and methods, as well as some preliminary results of this survey, have been published in this journal (Cliquet, 1969a).…”

Effectiveness of contraception in Belgium: results of the Second National Fertility Survey, 1971 (NEGO II)

“…The results of the two national fertility surveys organized and carried out (1966,1971) by the Population and Family Study Centre in Belgium (Cliquet, 1967(Cliquet, ,1969aMorsa, 1967;Cliquet et ah, 1970;Cliquet, Van den Bogaert & Becue, 1972) show not only that contraception has become a common practice among the population of Belgium but also that, in the main, the methods used are inefficient. The results of simple calculations indicate that contraception in Belgium is not very effective (Cliquet, 1969b;Cliquet et ah, \912, 1976).…”