RESUMO
To determine whether the pattern of marital relationships might be related to attitudes towards behavior bearing on fertility, 75 urban women from three categories of marital status and 3 categories of fertility were interviewed. Visiting relations are characterized by relatively infrequent sexual relations, particularly when the respondent is living with parents or parental surrogates. The 2nd visiting relationship shows a pattern of increased sexual frequency even with the same living relation arrangments. 22 percent of the 1st visiting relations of women reported, frequent higher than 1/week compared with 26 percent for the 2nd. Visitng relationships involve erratic patterns of sexual union with frequent periods of separation of the partners. In common law and marriage compared with the earlier visiting arrangments frequency and regularity increased. The low fertility of these women may be explained by the high proportion of mating experience spent in visiting relationships, periods of nonexposure between unions particularly during their most fertile years. In common law and marriage, respondents felt positive incentives to reproduction (AU)
