Females education in Jordan and the deviation of the marital fertility pattern from the natural fertility

Abstract EN

-To examine the effect of educational attainment by females in Jordan on the deviation of marital fertility from the natural pattern, and to assess the validity of data reported on fertility control practice in Jordan using the 1983 Jordan Fertility and Family Health Survey (JFFHS), A model developed by Coale was applied to the survey data.

In the analysis conducted in this article, and to estimate the fertility parameters M and m, two distinct sets of natural marital fertility schedules were used.

The first is an actual schedule representing the Hutterite marital fertility rates and the other schedule is an hypothetical one developed by Coale and Trussel.

Among the results reached applying this model that when the Hutterite marital fertility schedule was used, the level of fertility for women in Jordan in all educational levels, measured by the scale factor M, tends to be lower than that of the Hutterite.

As for the parameter m which represents the degree to which marital fertility for women in Jordan deviates from the natural pattern measured by marital fertility rates of the Hutterite women, its value falls within the range -0.199 for the incomplete primary group and 0.083 for the preparatory group.

On the other hand, the hypothetical model of natural marital fertility developed by Coale and Trussell gives results regarding the parameter m that seem to be more consistent with what have been achieved in Jordan regarding economic and social progress.