Contraceptive Initiation Patterns in Thailand

Data from the Thailand Demographic and Health Survey permit a detailed examination of the pattern of contraceptive initiation in terms both of first post-marital contraceptive use and initiation of use following childbirth. A clear trend towards beginning contraception earlier in the family-building process over the course of the fertility transition is evident. During the earliest stage, contraception was first used mainly after a couple had already achieved their desired family size, but later on couples increasingly began use in order to space births, and most recently it has become common to begin use to delay the start of childbearing. There are two distinctive patterns of contraceptive initiation following childbirth. For women who chose sterilization, initiation occurs during the immediate post partum period, while for those who used other methods, use most commonly began shortly after the return of menses. As a result, few Thai women are at present unprotected against unplanned pregnancies for any substantial period of risk following childbirth. Beginning to use contraception early in the family-building process and rapid adoption of contraception following childbirth are now found in most segments of Thai society, testifying to the maturing of Tailand's fertility transition.     

The Origins of the Chinese Fertility Decline

Education and urbanization are shown to have been negatively correlated to marital fertility in both urban and rural China prior to the initiation of the substantial family planning programs. We maintain that early use of contraception by better educated and urban strata is a plausible cause of the observed fertility differentials because other proximate variables are unlikely. Coale's m, a presumed indicator of controlled fertility, suggests early fertility control in urban and better educated strata. The apparent preprogram beginnings of fertility control among educational and urban elites does not, however, minimize the awesome effects on fertility of the powerful Chinese family planning programs, once begun.     

Marriage Patterns And Cumulative Fertility In West Malaysia: 1966–1967

Differentials in age at first marriage and being married more than once are discussed for a probability sample of West Malaysian currently married women 15-44 years of age. Both marriage ages and the incidence of multiple marriages vary greatly by race, place of current residence, wife's education, and husband's occupation; and the marriage variables are shown to have significant effects on the cumulative fertility of West Malaysian women. Early marriage leads to higher cumulative fertility and multiple marriages lead to lower cumulative fertility. Since the social groups with the highest proportions of early marriages are also those with the highest incidence of multiple marriages, the marriage variables explain some but not all of the variance in cumulative fertility for West Malaysian social groups. After adjustment for the effects of the marriage variables, rural Indian or Pakistani women still have the highest cumulative fertility and urban Chinese women with more than five years of schooling still have the lowest cumulative fertility.     

Migration and fertility in Puerto Rico

Abstract In an investigation based on special tabulations of the 25 per cent sample from the 1960 Census of Population for Puerto Rico, it is found that migration experience tends to be associated with fertility for various marital statuses, including consensual unions, and for rural, urban and metropolitan residence. The findings cannot be attributed to variations in age composition among the various categories as age standardization and age-specificcomparisons yield similar results. However, it is also found that rural-urban and consensually-legally mated differentials in fertility cannot be accounted for by variations in the migration variables that are examined. Thus, consistently higher fertility is found for non-migrants than for migrants; for consensually mated than for legally married and for rural than for urban or metropolitan residents. With a single exception, women in consensual unions, fertility is lower for women in the San Juan metropolitan area than in the other urban areas.     

Dissolution of first unions in Colombia,Panama, and Peru

An analysis of marital histories from World Fertility Survey data in Colombia, Panama, and Peru indicates a high level of union dissolution: the probabilities of a first union ending by separation within twenty years of the onset of union equal .27, .40, and .18 in the three countries respectively. Dissolution probabilities are especially high among women with young ages at first union and among women residing in urban areas. For all subgroups studied, consensual unions are characterized by several times the risk of separation of legal marriages. Consensual unions are especially frequent among women in rural areas, women with little education and women who enter unions at young ages. The different prevalence of consensual unions among the different subgroups affects the associations between union stability and various correlates so that it becomes essential to investigate the factors affecting union stability for both consensual unions and legal marriages. In spite of high dissolution rates, remarriage rates in all three countries are also high, as are the percentages of time spent in a union. Hence, the potential effects of voluntary disruption of unions on fertility appear to be modest.     

Population statistics] as of January 1, 2000

This table presents the population statistics of Thailand as of January 1, 2000. Thailand has a total population of 61,737,000; 30,726,000 are males and 31,011,000 are females. The urban areas have a population of 18,972,000, while the rural areas have a population of 42,765,000. The population numbers, by region, are the following: northern, 12,117,000; northeastern, 20,164,000; southern, 7,957,000; central (excluding Bangkok Metropolis), 13,654,000; Bangkok Metropolis, 7,845,000. Children (under age 15) numbered 14,764,000; labor force participants (ages 15-59), 41,647,000; the elderly (ages 60-79), 4,974,000; those aged 80 and above, 352,000; the school-age population (ages 6-21), 16,703,000; reproductive-age women (ages 15-44), 16,697,000; and the voting population (ages 18 and over), 43,691,000. The crude birth rate (per 1000 population) is 16.4, and the crude death rate is 6.5. Thailand has a natural growth rate of 1.0% and an infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births) of 22.4. Life expectancy at birth among males and females is 69.9 and 74.9, respectively. The total fertility rate is 1.9/woman, the contraceptive prevalence rate is 72.2%, and the ratio of females per 1 male is 1.0 for ages 0-59, 1.1 for ages 60-79, and 2.0 for ages 80 and over.     

Female status and fertility behaviour in a Metropolitan Urban area of Bangladesh

The paper examines hypotheses that certain aspects of status of married women such as (i) decision-making power; (ii) employment status and (iii) educational status, are positively associated with use of contraception and inversely related to fertility performance. The study is based on 1,130 women of reproductive age (15-49) who are currently married and living with their husbands and reported to be fecund. The data are drawn from a cross-section of working and non-working women of Dacca City. The hypothesis that each of the above status variables is related to fertility behaviour (measured as current use of contraception and number of children ever-born) is confirmed, with the sole exception of the relationship between female employment status and fertility behaviour. Female participation in the labour force has little or no effect on use of contraception, particularly among those who belong to higher education and income groups. However, in the lower education and income groups, fertility and use of contraception vary with work experience. The findings clearly point out the need to improve the status of women in order to achieve a breakthrough in the use of contraception and a reduction in fertility.     

Policies for fertility reduction: focus on Asia

Fertility can be affected by many factors. Over the long run, socioeconomic development has a decisive effect on reducing fertility. But in the short run, its effects are mixed. Providing greater educational opportunities, particularly for women, typically leads to lower fertility. Urban fertility tends to be much lower than rural fertility since urban residents have better access to information and health care. To the degree that governments are able to extend the reach of the modern sector to rural areas, they may be able to reduce fertility without encouraging urban growth. The effects of income on fertility are mixed: given sufficient time, higher incomes lead to lower fertility; but rising incomes in developing countries can, in the short run, increase fertility. Socioeconomic development factors, however, have less effect on fertility than do fertility dynamics at the individual level. Age at marriage, duration of breastfeeding, and use of contraceptives have important implications for fertility reduction policies. The contribution of of these factors to fertility control have been analyzed for a number of Asian and Pacific countries. Breastfeeding plays a key role in controlling fertility in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Later marriages compensate for lower breastfeeding levels in controlling fertility in other Asian and Pacific countries. The contribution of contraception to fertility control varies from 2% in Nepal to as much as 28% in Thailand. A low total fertility rate is almost always the result of relatively widespread use of contraceptives. Fertility rate reduction in India, Thailand, Indonesia, and Korea in he 1970s can largely be explained by increases in contraceptive usage.     

Fertility in black Africa

The number of children per woman is between 6 and 7 children in Black Africa. Infertility and poor fertility existing in certain regions of Africa only appear in results concerning central Africa. 6-10% of births occur in women between the ages of 40 and 50. It must be noted that the goal of the majority of societies in Black Africa is to have numerous descendants. Factors of fertility in Africa examined are: precocious marriage, a long period of exposure to the risk of pregnancy, birth spacing and pathological infertility. The paper also discusses modern contraception and birth control, the improvement of sanitation conditions as part of the battle against infertility and infant mortality, combating infertility, decreasing infant mortality and governmental attitudes toward fertility control. Despite the efforts of several private and governmental agencies to promote family planning, progress in Africa has been modest. In the majority of Black African countries, women do not have access to contraception. In rural areas, the absence of an administrative infrastructure prevents diffusion of information and access to contraception. Improving general health conditions has 2 consequences on fertility: it reduces infertility due to diseases that cause sterility and it reduces infant mortality which affects birth intervals. So far birth control has only been successful among the very educated women. However, a great potential for more users exists.     

Family planning practice and women's fertility decision-making power

This paper investigates the effects of family planning practice on fertility decision-making power in South Korea. The log-linear analysis of the 1981 survey data by the Institute of Population and Health Services Research, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, shows that those urban and rural women who practice family planning or have experienced abortion exercise greater influence on a couple's fertility decision making than those who do not practice family planning or who have had no abortion experience. In addition, there is the interactive effect of abortion experience and contraceptive use on fertility decision making among urban women. This finding is significant because regardless of how birth control is available within a society, birth control use enhances women's decision making power where fertility is concerned.     

Religious fertility differentials in Thailand, 1960

Abstract Although the evidence supporting high fertility in Thailand is clear-cut, little is known about fertility differentials within the population. As part of a larger investigation, a special 1 % tabulation of the 1960 Thai census data on number of children ever-born to married women has been analysed to determine the extent of differentials by religion and urban-rural status. The findings point to considerable differentials among Buddhists, Moslems, and Confucianists. Standardizing for age, the number of children ever-born to 12/loslems averaged well below the number born to Buddhists. Confucian fertility was intermediate. Within specific age groups, the number of children ever-born to Moslem women was considerably below the Buddhist average and the differentials were sharper in the higher age groups. By contrast, Confucian fertility was highest of all in the age groups under 35, but lower than the Buddhist averages among older women. Significant urban-rural differentials also exist. For both the Buddhist and the Confucian women, fertility is markedly lower in urban than in rural categories. When controlling for both age and urban-rural status, Buddhist and Confucian differences tend to be minimal. By contrast, Moslem fertility was highest in the most urban category - Bangkok - but was considerably lower and substantially below the fertility levels of Buddhists and Confucianists in all other urban-rural categories. The census data in themselves do not permit adequate analysis of the reasons for the differentials. Later age at marriage in urban places may be a significant factor in accounting for the overall differentials in urban-rural fertility ; but this relation is much less clear for specific religious groups, particularly since Moslems marry at a considerably earlier age. More frequent divorce and remarriage may lower Moslem rates. Poorer health may also be a factor.     

The conflicting effects of delayed marriage and declining divorce rates on cumulative fertility in Indonesia

The impact of nuptiality patterns on fertility in Indonesia is examined with multivariate analysis controlling for 8 socioeconomic variables. Data were obtained from the 1987 Indonesian Contraceptive Prevalence Survey. Marriage is usually universal by age 35, and in this study all women 30 years had been married at least once. 20% were married at 15 years and 45% married at 18 years. For those married more than once, prevalence of 1st marriage was 7% for women 15-24 years, 15% for 25-34 years, and 29% for 35-49 years. In 1976 and 1987, the age at 1st marriage and number of times married were both strongly and negatively correlated. The % never marrying between 15-49 years rose from 21.5% to 26.4% between 1980-87. Cumulative fertility w as related to both age at 1st marriage and number of times married. Muslim women, women in Java and Bali, and rural women all marry at younger ages. 27% of the variance in age at 1st marriage is explained by women aged 25-34, current residence, region, religion, language, education, and work or not before marriage. The number of times married is also associated with socioeconomic characteristics without control, i.e., Muslim women 25-34 years were 3 times more likely to have been married more than once than in other faiths. With controls for socioeconomic factors, only 13% of the variance is explained and being Muslim has no statistically significant effect. The important net effects were being interviewed in Balinese, age, and age at 1st marriage. In the analysis of cumulative fertility, age at 1st marriage consistently is related to cumulative fertility in almost every socioeconomic group when age and number of times married is controlled for. Women married more than once have lower fertility. 36% of the variance is explained by all the variables. Being married more than once leads to having 2.1 fewer children. A 5-year delay in marriage leads to .75-1.1 fewer children. When other variables are controlled for, neither educational level nor prior work experience has a statistically significant effect on cumulative fertility. In the contraception analysis, women married more than once used contraception less. Among women 35-49, those marrying later had higher contraceptive use, but in general contraceptive use declined with age. More information is needed on why marriage patterns are changing.     

Migration and fertility in the Philippines: Hendershot's selectivity model revisited

A demographer compared 1983 data on 5092 currently married migrant and nonmigrant women living in the Philippines to determine whether migration was still selective in terms of fertility behavior or not. Fertility was basically the same between migrant and nonmigrant women in their early reproductive years, but clear differences existed between older migrants and nonmigrants as indicated by children ever born (CEB). In fact, migration did not significantly affect cumulative fertility at all (correlation ratio=.03). Moreover its effect was further reduced when the researchers controlled for age and duration of marriage. Besides level of education and contraceptive use status contributed more to explanations of fertility differentials (correlation ratio=.09 for both) than did migration. The mean number of CEB adjusted for all variables fell with level of education from 4.18 for those with primary education to 3.63 to those with college education. This result identified education as a means to reduce high fertility in the Philippines. On the other hand, the mean was higher among women who ever used contraception than it was for those who never used it (4.21 vs. 3.72). Apparently considerable family size motivated mothers to use contraception. Since women who migrated to cities tended to be in the beginning of their reproductive period, considerable natural increase could occur in urban areas. Therefore the Philippines needed to devise a strategy for reducing fertility among migrant women as well as strategies for other groups such as professional/career oriented women and women who remained at home to tend to children and/or the home.     

Birth control and regional differentials in the Soviet Union

Abstract Following the territorial division pointed out by Urlanis into those parts of the Soviet Union where birth control is practised and where it is not as widespread, it is possible to ascertain the importance of different factors bearing on fertility within each region. This study was based on data obtained from the 1959 USSR Census of Population including information on social and demographic characteristics of the urban and rural populations for over 150 political-administrative areas. In Central Asia, Azerbaidjan and Armenia, outside the region of birth control, the level of fertility depends mainly on the proportion of women who are married and also on their social position measured by the discrepancy in the educational status of men and women. In contrast, the birth control region of a relatively low level of fertility in urban areas, for example, displays the characteristic of women's educational achievement most strongly associated with the child-woman ratio. Except for the rural areas in this region, the present study fails to support the popular hypothesis that economic dependency of women is directly related to fertility.     

Population pressure and fertility in pre-transition Thailand

Before the demographic transition in Thailand, fertility was high, but not uniformly so. As in other pre-transition settings, Thai fertility responded to pressures and opportunities created by socioeconomic structure and land availability. Drawing upon provincial data from the 1947 and 1960 censuses of Thailand, we find a strong 'frontier effect' on Thai fertility in the 1950s. Fertility was higher in sparsely settled frontier provinces and lower in provinces with higher population density relative to cultivatable land. This finding is robust and holds up with controls for agricultural employment, land quality, and the sex ratio (an indicator of sex-selective migration). The effect of population pressure lowers the likelihood of marriage and of marital fertility. The findings from Thailand are consistent with the research of Easterlin on the nineteenth century United States and with other pre-transition societies. We suggest how demographic transition theory might be broadened to include fertility dynamics in pre-transition societies.     

Men’s Migration and Women’s Fertility in Rural Mozambique

Labor migration profoundly affects households throughout rural Africa. This study looks at how men’s labor migration influences marital fertility in a context where such migration has been massive while its economic returns are increasingly uncertain. Using data from a survey of married women in southern Mozambique, we start with an event-history analysis of birth rates among women married to migrants and those married to nonmigrants. The model detects a lower birth rate among migrants’ wives, which tends to be partially compensated for by an increased birth rate upon cessation of migration. An analysis of women’s lifetime fertility shows that it decreases as the time spent in migration by their husbands accrues. When we compare reproductive intentions stated by respondents with migrant and nonmigrant husbands, we find that migrants’ wives are more likely to want another child regardless of the number of living children, but the difference is significant only for women who see migration as economically benefiting their households. Yet, such women are also significantly more likely to use modern contraception than other women. We interpret these results in light of the debate on enhancing versus disrupting effects of labor migration on families and households in contemporary developing settings.     

Organization and implementation of China's national sampling survey on fertility and birth control

The Planning and Statistical Department of the State Family Planning Commission of China in July 1988 implemented a fertility and birth control survey in China on 2.16 million married women ages 15-57 using stratified, systematic, clustered, and non-proportionate sampling. 3 questionnaires were used: household, married women, and sample unit covering basic status, family planning status, general characteristics of pregnancy and contraception, population flow, deaths since 1981, and socioeconomic status. The authors suggest several international cooperative research projects including: design of fertility and contraception survey; Chinese population growth; Chinese population dynamics; dynamics of marital and family status; fertility; contraception and birth control; mortality; migration; status of the nationalities of China; population development; regional fertility status; and others. Data from the survey will be available in June 1989.     

Breast feeding,fertility and infant mortality: An analysis of some early German data

Concern about high infant mortality and its suspected connection with the lack of breast-feeding stimulated the collection of statistics about the frequency of breast-feeding in several German states during the late roth and early 20th centuries. Contrary to the assumption that universal and extended breast-feeding is customary among rural agricultural populations, large regional variations existed both in the proportion of children who were breast-fed and in the average duration of the period for which they were breast-fed. An analysis of these data in connection with statistics of infant mortality and marital fertility confirms the association between high infant mortality and the absence of breast-feeding. An hypothesis linking breast-feeding and fertility, however, is not confirmed. Marital fertility appears to be much more closely associated with infant mortality than with breast-feeding.     

Breast feeding, fertility and infant mortality: An analysis of some early German data

Abstract Concern about high infant mortality and its suspected connection with the lack of breast-feeding stimulated the collection of statistics about the frequency of breast-feeding in several German states during the late roth and early 20th centuries. Contrary to the assumption that universal and extended breast-feeding is customary among rural agricultural populations, large regional variations existed both in the proportion of children who were breast-fed and in the average duration of the period for which they were breast-fed. An analysis of these data in connection with statistics of infant mortality and marital fertility confirms the association between high infant mortality and the absence of breast-feeding. An hypothesis linking breast-feeding and fertility, however, is not confirmed. Marital fertility appears to be much more closely associated with infant mortality than with breast-feeding.