In 1975, as part of a socio-medical survey in a southern province of Iran, the influence of socio-cultural variables on behaviour in relation to illness and on beliefs about the causes of disease was examined. It was found that traditional beliefs such as ‘luck’ and religion were related to locality and age. For instance, the urban literate community puts less emphasis than the illiterate rural population on such beliefs. Older people and those living in rural areas still tend to believe in as ‘evil eye’ as a cause of disease, but a small percentage of old people in both localities do believe that flies can cause disease. The causal role of culture or specific elements of culture on health and disease requires further study.

Studies involving collation of social characteristics of women frequently include statements about their social class designation and may compare groups in different classes against other variables. The method of making such a designation is very unsatisfactory and may lead to spurious conclusions arising from the method of classification.

When designation is carried out by a method primarily concerned with married women's own occupations rather than those of their husbands, some of the apparent differences in distribution are lost. It is possible to examine married and unmarried women together if those in both groups work outside the home.

Such considerations are particularly important in data relating to reproductive behaviour, such as abortion statistics and studies of births or the use of contraception.

This paper presents a method of estimating the number of births averted due to induced abortions by utilising the data on prospective birth intervals of the women. Numerical illustrations are given.

This study explores the reasons which individuals give for initially wanting children; data are drawn from intensive interviews concerned with reproduction, marriage and family life which were conducted with couples in the childbearing stage of marriage. The study is an extension of the approach but forward by Busfield (1974) in that it examines the beliefs which structure social constructions of reproduction.

The evidence suggests that, although wide-ranging beliefs are drawn upon in accounting for wanting children, the underlying reasons are concerned with beliefs about the nature of ordinary adult life. However, except at a very general level, such beliefs are not uniformly held but are selected and structured by the particular situation and experience of individuals. The approach demonstrates how a deeper understanding of reproductive behaviour can be gained by relating it to the wider context of family, marriage and adult life.

This paper evaluates a Singapore experiment to test the Shettles ‘rhythm and douche’ method of sex control. The clinic was set up in the hope that if couples could have the son they desired, they would keep their families small in accordance with the goverment's strong commitment to population control. From March 1975 to July 1977, 10,000 newly-wed women were invited to attend the clinic. A thousand women, not all newlyweds, attended at least once. Of the 31 women who had definite sex preferences, who attempted to follow the method, and who gave birth between March 1975 and November 1977, all wanted boys. By chance alone, one would expect about sixteen to have boys. In fact, fourteen had boys. Only six of the 31 women reported using the method completely correctly.

Women attending the clinic at least once were more likely to have an outside job, to have a husband with a professional or managerial job, and to be of Chinese origin compared with the Singapore population. Clients coming either had fertility problems and had no sex preferences or wanted a boy. Of those coming at least once, 70% had no previous children; the rest had had 403 girls and 58 boys.

To test this sex control technique adequately, one would need a large sample of highly committed couples who are given intensive counselling and follow-up. This particular method appears to be impractical on a mass basis, apart from questions about its effectiveness. Other sex control methods currently under research may prove more practical and effective. A better solution would be to discourage boy preference and improve the opportunities for girls.

Some retrospective data collected in a survey carried out in 1967–68 show that the practice of breast-feeding declined markedly in Great Britain between the 1930s and the 1960s. Throughout, women higher up the social-educational scale breast-fed more than those lower down. Women marrying before the age of 20 (as well as those marrying at age 30 or older) tended to breast-feed less than those marrying in their twenties; for the former, the explanation was probably ‘social’. Needing, or choosing, to return to work soon after confinement was not, in general, an important inhibiting factor so far as breast-feeding was concerned. From the 1967–68 data, there seemed to be a negative association between the level of breast-feeding and birth order, but this may not have been ‘genuine’ since other data did not agree. There was a positive association between level of breast-feeding and family size, for family sizes up to four, but a drop for those with five or more children. This latter feature could be the result of a tendency for those with large families to arrive at this situation by way of short interbirth intervals, this in turn being associated with low levels of breast-feeding; the former might possibly reflect a positive link between women' capacity to breast-feed and their capacity to bear children.

Two samples of male students (N = 25, and N = 51) and a small sample of female students (N = 7) were administered the Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS), and blood samples were drawn on two occasions to determine plasma levels of androgens and oestrogens. Reliable and significant simple and partial correlations were found between the sex hormones and the SSS subscale, Disinhibition. Partial correlations simultaneously controlled for height, weight, age, and recency of orgasm.

The conception rate in Baroda and Manipal, India, is lowest during the hottest weather. The greatest extremes are found in Baroda and, following high summer temperatures, there is a prolongation of low conception rates which may indicate that part or all of the effect is mediated through an effect on scrotal temperature. However, other factors may also be involved and a reduction of coital frequency is likely at extremes of temperature. Seasonal changes in abortion, stillbirths and prematurity are also observed. Changes in spontaneous abortion could be due to heat stress in the mother or possibly to abnormal sperm production at high temperature or to less frequent coitus, leading to embryonic defects.

Except for the year 1931, no information is available on age at paternity in England and Wales before 1961. But such information is needed to determine the aetiological significance of raised maternal age, for example that which has been reported for several types of psychiatric disorder. Parental age at the birth of a respondent was studied in a survey of 2000 persons forming a quota sample of the adult population of England and Wales. Checks against the available national statistics suggest the findings for age at paternity can be accepted with some confidence.

The weight charts for the six infants of a 20-year-old Aboriginal woman are examined. They all show satisfactory growth whilst being exclusively breast-fed, yet all demonstrate growth failure following the introduction of supplementary feeding. The double benefits of optimal infant growth and delay in the next conception derived from exclusive breast-feeding indicate its desirability for women in these circumstances. The problems associated with supplementary feeding and the non-utilization of family planning methods are demonstrated in the low maternal age at first pregnancy, the lack of adequate family spacing during the mother's teenage years, excessive family size and the impaired growth rate of the children.

Two independent, concurrent demographic surveys in rural India, one male, the other female, were used to examine misreporting of ever-born children among 223 couples common to both samples. Husband-wife disagreements were checked in detail and characteristics of the errors and of the misreporters themselves were analysed. ‘Forgetting’ of dead children was the main cause of mistaken reporting. Another type of error was found to be sex-related: men, but not women, confused fetal deaths with live births. Of the various correlates of male misreporting tested, only age appeared to be a determining factor. On the other hand, traditional attitudes and overall response reliability were more important than age in explaining female errors. No significant relationships between faulty reporting and socio-economic status or family size were established. Various suggestions are made for minimizing fertility misreporting in surveys of rural, illiterate populations.