Data from the 1988 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey is employed to determine the existence of a relationship between the amount of education a woman has and her intent to cease childbearing. The findings are that with increasing levels of education, a female's desire to cease reproduction also increases. However, this relationship is obscured if parity is not controlled.

PIP: The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, 1988, was used to examine responses from 2490 fecund women aged 20-49 with no education, some primary education (7.7 years), and some secondary education (11.8 years). The objective was to examine the relationship between female education and intentions not to bear another child. The hypothesis was that educated females have more interest in ceasing reproduction than the less educated or uneducated. Ghana has experienced increases in female education to 62% in 1984, and relatively stable fertility of 6.11 in 1985-88. There is evidence from other high fertility countries that increases in female education can account for as much as a 25% drop in fertility. A profile of the sample population in provided, i.e., the mean of the uneducated was 32.8 years, some primary education was 29.8 years, and some secondary education was 29.6 years. Fertility was 4.7 births and 3.8 living children for those uneducated, 3.7 births and 3.2 alive for primary educated, and 2.3 births and 2.0 alive for the secondary educated. 23% of either those uneducated or secondary educated intended not to have another child, and 25% of primary educated did not want another child. When age and parity of living children are taken into consideration, it is apparent that after 3 births women desire to terminate reproduction, and there is an inverse relationship between education and intentions after controlling for parity. There is a higher level of desired stops of childbearing at all parities 1 and levels of education. Among the uneducated, at all parities of 6 children, 50% desire no more children. Among primary educated, 50% desire no more children at parity 5, and among secondary educated, parity 4. The results of the logistic regression without controlling for parity show that level of schooling does not significantly alter the odds of stoppage of childbearing. When controlling for parity, the log odds of the intention to cease childbearing increased with rising levels of education. Primary school increases the log odds by .74 compared with uneducated women, and secondary educated 1.49 compared with the uneducated. Sub-Saharan African women are interested in fertility limitation, contrary to popular claims. More research into the relationship between intentions and behavior change is needed.