Family Size, Sex Composition and Children's Education: Ethnic Differentials Over Development in Peninsular Malaysia

This study examines the effect of family size and sex composition on educational attainment among children of three ethnic groups across two generations in Peninsular Malaysia, to demonstrate that extra-familial factors such as economic development and education policy will affect relationships hitherto conceptualized mainly at the family level. Specifically, it is argued that a negative family size-schooling relationship will emerge only at a development stage when education is an important qualification and costs of schooling are relatively high; and may not emerge at all among those subgroups whose schooling is subsidized by the state. Results of multivariate statistical analyses using 1976 and 1988 survey data show no relationship between family size and education among the older generation. The younger generation shows a negative relationship, but only among Chinese and Indians, for whom schooling was not state-subsidized. Among Malays, who received affirmative action benefits, there is no such relationship. Though girls get less schooling on average than boys, the educational disadvantages of increasing family size do not appear to be restricted to girls.