Childlessness in the Philippines: Patterns and Determinants

In developing countries like the Philippines, where population growth is quite high, the primary objective of the government is population control. Childlessness has been neglected both as a health problem and as a subject for social science research. The general thrust of both program and research has been on the correlates of high fertility and its regulation. Little, if nothing, was done on the understanding of Filipino childlessness.

In this study, childlessness among currently married women in the Philippines will be examined to establish its extent in the country, and to investigate factors associated with it. Findings shall provide relevant insights on childless women, particularly in making population growth projections, establishing family planning targets, and estimating requirements for services and other relevant developments in medical technology. This research is a valuable step in contributing to the limited literature on childlessness in the Philippines.

A combination of descriptive and inferential statistical methods will be utilized in the analysis. The determinant analysis employs multinomial logistic regression which identifies how closely each explanatory variable is associated with the likelihood of being childless after controlling for the effects of the other variables in the model.