Synopsis
Future family size intentions of 147 male and 182 female adolescents attending Catholic high schools on the Darling Downs, Queensland were explored using the following 4 predictor variables: (1) the number of children in the family, (2) Catholic religion, (3) beliefs and social pressures about having children, and (4) sex-role ideology. Males and females differed in the degree and order of importance of these predictors. A large proportion of the variance remained unexplained, and it was suggested that future research include specific varieties of parent-child interactions as intrinsic variables in the motivation for parenthood.