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Pak. J. Agri. Sci., Vol. 30, No.1, 1993 SOME DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL EXPECTATION FROM ELDER CHILDREN TO SUPPORT THEIR YOUNGERS IN RURAL FAISALABAD Imran Saleem, Muhammad Iqbal Zafar & Farooq Tanvir" PERI, Rawalpindi and *Population Studies Centre, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad The study was conducted in rural areas of Faisalabad district. A sample of 500 parents was selected from two rural communities. The main objective was to find out differentials, if any, between socioeconomic characteristics of the parents and their expectations from cider sons and daughters to financially support their youngers. The results showed that education and income of the respondents led to differentiation regarding their expectations for financial support from elder children to those younger to them. Highly educated and rich parents had lesser expectations than less educated and poor parents. INTRODUCTION number of living children did not exceed 3.3. A similar downward trend was observed for Zand (1987) conducted a pilot study to the desired number of children as well as the assess the 'Economic value of children' in ideal number of children. Pakistan. The number of men and women Almost all parents showed their desire interviewed was 782. The respondents were to obtain financial help from their children. asked to tell family size as part of their ex- They hoped their sons would contribute for perience, their expectations from their chil- family expenditures when they started earn- dren, and their perceptions for children and ing. They asked them to give financial sup- family size. The average number of living port to their younger brothers and sisters children was found as 3.9 per family. The gelling education. These expectations and mean age at marriage was 26.3 years for aspirations were mostly shown for or from men and 20,0 years for women. The average the working sons. A small minority of par- number of living children for currently mar- ents wanted financial participation of ried women of age 40 to 45 was 5.6. The daughters because a majority of parents did number of living sons was greater than the not allow their daughters to work. A nega- number of daughters and preference for ad- tive relationship was found between the ditional sons, even among those who already education and income of the parents and the had 2 living sons, was common among all economic value of the children. It showed a respondents. Among' {actors affecting the decrease in the economic value of children size of family, age at marriage showed the with socioeconomic advancement. The par- most effective impact on the average num- ents would not seek the financial help and ber of living children. Women married at support from their children with betterment below 15 years had on average 5.2 living in social condition of the parents. The fol- children. Those who married at the age of lowing were the major objectives of the 15 to 20 had 4.2, while for those who mar- study: To know about the socioeconomic ried at 20 to 25 years age, their average characteristics of the parents of rural Faisal- 39 Pak. J. Agri. sa; Vol. 30, No.1, 1993 abad and to find out the parental ex- the relationship between the socioeconomic pectations from elder children to support characteristics and reproductive behaviour their youngers. of the respondents. Table 1. Distribution of respondents family size by their expectation from elder sons to support their youngers Expectations Family size of support ------ .•.------- ..__ .•...•__ .•._----------------- ..----_ ... _------------------------ Total from elder sons to youngers 1 - 3 4-5 6 + n % n % n % n % Not relevant 6 1.20 1 0.20 1 0.20 8 1.60 No 0 0.00 6 1.20 5 1.00 11 2.20 It depends 6 1.20 4 0.80 15 3.00 25 5.00 Yes 74 14.80 131 26.20 246 49.20 451 90.20 Not necessarily 0 0.00 0 0.00 5 1.00 5 1.00 Total 86 17.20 142 28.40 272 54.40 500 100.00 METHODS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The survey was conducted in two rural Family size by expectation from elder son to areas of district Faisalabad, Two randomly support their youngers: In Pakistan, fami- selected localities of Faisalabad district, lies set up, particularly in joint family sys- namely Gatwala and Sadhar were taken. tem, elder brother has an important role to Five hundred respondents were se- provide social, economic and moral support lected at random. The respondents were to their youngers. It is usually the case with head (father) of the households having at socially poor who have large families but do least one child of age ten or more. Mostly not have the sources to support all the chil- the heads of the families were fathers but in dren. So, whenever the elder one starts case of their death/absence, mothers were earning, parents expect him to support the interviewed. As literacy level is very low, so youngers. it was decided to conduct face to face survey The information given in Table 1 indi- by using well designed interviewing cates that a huge majority of the respon- schedule. The interviewing schedule was in dents have expectation that their elder sons English language but interview was con- should give monetary support to their ducted in native language (Punjabi) with full younger brothers and sisters in terms of care so that the meanings of words, sen- their school fees, uniforms, pocket money, tenccs and phrases did not change. Interview etc. About 50% of the respondents who have was conducted individually either at rcspon- such expectations also have large family size. dent's house or at his shop. Percentage and It means that expectations from elder sons Chi-square values were calculated to study to help the family economically is one of the 40 Pak. J. Agri. sa, Vol. 29, No.3. 1992 " c ~ ~ ~ i ~ Q Q Q ..0 Q + " .-.t 0 ("')•...•0 0 c I~ c I I I I c ! I ! i~ -tjl ::: 8.c I ~! ~ ;::•..•0 0 0 .-t I " ~•...•0~ ~000~ ~ 0~ 0~ c c \CI N 000 •...•0 c "1' - •..• $:i 0 " 41 Pak. J. Agri. sa; Vol. 30, No. J, J993 CI c: CI 000 ..-.(0 0 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CO! \0 ~ ~ NO..... 0 CI c: ~ ~ ~ il il ~ ~ ~ \0 0'\ ~ NO.... 0 "e . ]. CI " CI .~o :s '"UJ 42 Pak. J. Agri. Sci., Vol. 30, No. I, 1993 important reasons for large families in Pak- Table 3 show that parents with high income istan. have lesser expectation from cider sons to Qualification by expectation from elder support their younger children. The reasons sons to support their youngers: In a pre- may be that these parents are economically modern society with high mortality and high sound and they themselves give support to fertility rates, human beings are the princi- all the children. pal economic resource. Even as youngsters, Income by their expectation from the elder they can help in many tasks, and as they daughters to support youngers: Table 4 in- mature, they provide the bulk of labour dicates that more than 50% of the respon- force that supports those, such as the aged, dents do not have expectation from their ei- who are no longer able to support them- der daughters to support their younger selves. Many times as mortality declines and brothers and sisters. It is observed that as the need to have large numbers of children the level of income of respondents increases, no longer exists, the need for labour or the the expectation from daughters for help need for old age security may still be given decreases. Only 19% of the respondents as a reason for continuing to have many have the expectation from their daughters to children. In most societies, males have been help their youngers. valued more highly than females. Thus, it is Qualification and support of youngers from easy to understand why many families would the elder daughters: The information given continue to have children until they have at in Table 5 indicates that there is an associa- least one son. Further, if babies are likely to tion between the education of parents and die, a family may have at least two sons in expectation from the cider daughters to help order to increase the likelihood that one of their younger sisters and brothers. them will survive to adulthood. It may be noted from Table 5 that as Table 2 shows very interesting results the level of education of respondents in- that expectation from the elder sons to sup- creases, the expectation of help from the ei- port their younger children financially is der daughter decreases. Chi-square value decreasing by increasing the parents educa- also indicates that there is a strong relation- tion. The reason may be that highly edu- ship between education and expectation of cated parents do not want to make their eI- help of younger children from the elder der sons to face economical problems and daughters. they themselves support all the children be- cause they are economically sound and they REFERENCES know the bad physiological and sociological impact of these expectations on their chil- Zand, M. 1987. The Economic Value of dren. Chi-square value also confirms these Children: National lust. of Population results. Studies, Islamabad, Pakistan. Income by expectation from elder sons to support their youngers: The data given in 43.

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