Extended Family Structure and Fertility: Some Conceptual and Methodological Issues.

Despite a dearth of relevant empirical evidence, the proposition that the extended family encourages and facilitates high fertility has become widely accepted. This paper summarizes the main theoretical discussions, presents illustrative data, and analyzes the conceptual and methodological adequacy of reported studies. It concludes that it is essential to distinguish between individual and aggregate levels of analysis and between co-residence and kin interaction. It would also be valuable to define more carefully the various types of family structure, to keep the time reference of fertility (current or cumulative) congruent with that of family structure (cross-sectional or longitudinal), to take into account age at marriage and extent of celibacy, and to be more alert to the possibility of opposing causal forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]