Meyers Amish 9/97 (WP)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Amish: Remain or Leave?

101010 0
11541
12440
13330
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TOTAL44034496

a_{The data in this table were taken from a random sample of 33 church districts, or}approximately one-half of the Elkhart-LaGrange population in 1988.

In the Elkhart-LaGrange settlement the average family includes

7.39 children.¹⁸Thus positions greater than eight have relatively
small numbers of defectors. What is interesting is that there is a larger
group of defectors in positions one to three than in four to seven. These

findings are contrary to social scientists' descriptions¹⁹of firstborns in
comparison to later-borns. According to those descriptions, firstborns
tend to be conservative, with a "strong tendency to adopt the values of
their parents." However, later-borns are "less cautious, more
impulsive. . . more peer conscious and more willing to challenge

authority."²⁰Table 3 clearly suggests that the Amish do not fit the
pattern of the dominant culture. Those most likely to reject the values
of their parents appear to be in early sibling positions and those who
conserve the tradition come later in the family.

IMAGE imgs/meyers_amish07.gif

18_{. For further discussion of issues related to}_{family size, see Meyers, "Population."}

19_{. For a discussion of this issue see Jerome Kagan, "The Child in the Family," Daedalus
(Spr., 1977), 33-56.}

20_{. Maxine Baca Zinn and D. Stanley Eitzen, Diversity in Families}_{(New York: Harper}Collins, 1993).

21_{. Kraybill, 73.}
22_{. Julia A. Ericksen and Gary Klein, "Women's Roles and Family Production among the
Old Order Amish," Rural Sociology, 46 (Spr., 1981), 282-96.}