This study is based on personal interviews collected in three
developing countries: Egypt, Thailand, and Colombia. The data
were gathered with the cooperation of the Regional Population
Center Corporation in Colombia; the Social Research Center,
American University, in Egypt; and the Institute for Population
and Social Research, Mahidol University, in Thailand.

The three countries under investigation are widely dispersed
in terms of geographic locations. They also vary in many social
and cultural respects. The following section briefly describes
each country with special emphasis on their social, cultural,
and economic characteristics.

Located in the middle of mainland Southeast Asia, Thailand
is one of the thirty-nine lower-middle income countries of the
world ( Kurian, 1982). In 1980 it had a population of more than
46 million. It has achieved a moderate level of urbanization.
Nearly 20 percent of its total population in 1980 lived in urban
areas. A majority of the people (96 percent) embrace the Bud-
dhist religion in its Theravada or Hinayana form. The beliefs

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