Most societies today are in a stage of transition, moving at different paces from one point to another along the continuum of modernity. In a situation of transition or cultural change, adults get married and become parents not only as a response to the social pressures to conform, but also according to their personal life goal s and priorities. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the married couple's decision concerning the timing of their first child, and to identify the relevant factors involved in such a decision.

The discussion is based on some of the findings from a larger study on delayed parenthood and is divided into four sections. The first section provides a brief background on the situation in Singapore, delineating relevant aspects of the social setting within which the study took place. The second section is a review of research findings from other studies concerning parenthood decisions, their causes and consequences. The third section presents and discusses the aspects of modernity and traditionalism that are found to be related to the choice of delayed motherhood. A concluding section summarizes the main findings and their implications. The description of the study design is provided in Appendix A; and the questionnaire used during the interviews appears in Appendix 8.