The Child and Family Eight Years after Undesired Conception

Abstract

This survey is a follow-up study, up to the age of 8 years of children reported to have been born from pregnancies not desired by the mother, in Northern Finland in 1966. The data were collected by means of a postal questionnaire sent separately to families and school teachers. Each child was assigned a control, born from a desired pregnancy and similar at the time of birth as regards mother's marital status, parity, and place of residence and also the social class of the father. No difference between the groups was found in the emotional development of the children. School performance was poorer among the unwanted children, but the difference was statistically significant only in respect of the need for additional instruction in writing. Evidence was also found that the parents in the control families worried more about the health of their children than did those of the unwanted children. Even when the social standing of the families was matched as regards time of birth, the families with unwanted children showed more downward and less upward social mobility during the intervening 8 years than did the control families, and there were also indications of differences in lifestyle preference between the families. The conclusion was therefore drawn that undesired conception selects a subgroup of less capable families from each social class, and that the differences found in the children can also be explained by differences in social and economic standing between these two groups of families.