Effects of the number and spacing of children on marital and parental satisfaction.

Analyzing data from a fifteen-year follow-up study of high school students originally surveyed in 1957-58 and resurveyed in 1973-74, this paper examines the effects of the number and spacing of children on marital and parental satisfaction. The results suggest that the number of children in the family has no direct effect on marital satisfaction but has a direct negative effect on parental satisfaction. Childspacing, as measured by the length of the average birth interval, is found to have no significant effect on either marital or parental satisfaction. Premarital pregnancy has a negative effect on both the marital and parental satisfaction of women.