Fertility Expectations and Ethnic Identity among Mexican-American Adolescents

Survey data from Arizona secondary schools were used to test the applicability of structural and minority status hypotheses to the differential fertility expectations of Mexican-American and Anglo adolescents. Analyses of the number of children expected by these respondents and their implied parity progression ratios indicate that indices of acculturation are more important in explaining expected fertility than are measures of parental socioeconomic status or respondent's expected status. Among Mexican-American respondents, language spoken at home, nativity of the respondent and his or her father, and residence are associated with expected fertility. These indices of acculturation retain their importance even when father's education, father's occupation, and number of siblings are introduced.