BACKGROUND
Previous research suggests that kin availability may be correlated with reproductive
outcomes, but it is not clear that a causal relationship underlies these findings. Further,
there is substantial variation in how kin availability is measured.
OBJECTIVE
We attempt to identify whether different measures of kin availability influence how kin
affect reproductive outcomes and whether the effect of kin on reproductive outcomes is
driven by the help that they provide.
METHODS
Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (1993, 1997, 2000, 2007), we
compare the survival of parents and parents-in-law, their co-residence, geographic
proximity, contact frequency, and helping behavior in predicting fertility outcomes, and
test a hypothesized causal pathway linking kin availability to reproduction via helping
behavior.
RESULTS
We find different results if we operationalize parental availability as survival or coresidence,
suggesting that these measures cannot be used interchangeably. Receiving
help from parents or parents-in-law has a positive effect on progression to birth when
women have fewer than three living children. Path analyses show that geographic
proximity is associated with contact frequency, which in turn influences helping
behavior. Kin help has a positive effect on progression to giving birth for all parental
categories, but the effects are strongest for mothers-in-law.