How accurate are proxy reports of partner’s pregnancy wantedness?: Evidence from Australian couples.

Unwanted fertility is an important concept for understanding fertility behaviour. In Australia, about 10% of live births between 2005-2008 are estimated to have been unwanted, and a further 10% were mistimed in that they occurred earlier than desired. One criticism of measures of unintended childbearing is that they are usually only based on the views of one parent, typically the mother. In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the need to consider men’s roles and to study childbearing decision in the context of the couple. To this end, many surveys ask respondents to provide proxy answers on behalf of their partner. While proxy reports can be a cost-effective and simple way to gain information about the partner, without actually interviewing them, there has been little systematic research assessing their accuracy. Using data from a 2008 Australian survey we assess the accuracy of proxy reports of pregnancy wantedness by directly comparing them with the partner’s responses. We find that proxy reports are accurate in 87% of cases. In the remaining 13%, they either over or underestimated the degree to which the partner wanted the pregnancy. Proxy reports are often inaccurate when the partner did not want the child.