Recent Trends in Canadian Fertility*

Depuis 1941, on a observe au Canada des variations importantes du niveau de la fecondite et la tendance est souvent illustree par les fluctuations du taux de natalite. Afin de mieux interpreter ces fluctuations, une analyse des principales composantes du taux de natalite s'avere necessaire: la distribution par age de la population feminine (mariee ou de tout etat matrimonial) et les taux de fecondite par age tant pour les femmes mariees que pour l'ensemble des femmes. C'est la baisse de la fecondite legitime qui est en majeure partie la cause de la chute du taux de natalite observee depuis 1959. Pour approfondir l'analyse, on etablit une comparaison entre des indices de fecondite legitime de cohorte et du moment. De 1946 a 1960, les indices du moment sont nettement plus eleves que ceux de cohorte; cependant contrairement a ce qui s'est passe au cours de cette periode, on observe maintenant un etalement des intervalles entre naissances, de telle sorte que depuis 1960, les indices du moment sont nettement plus faibles que les indices de fecondite legitime de cohorte.
Observers have witnessed important changes in the level of fertility in Canada since 1941. The trend is often illustrated by variations in the birth rate. To understand these variations better, the main components of the birth rate will be analysed: age distribution of total and married female population, and age-specific fertility rates for all women and married women. The decline of marital fertility is mostly responsible for the fall of the birth rate observed since 1959. In a further analysis, period and cohort marital fertility are compared: from 1946 to 1960, period measures were much higher than cohort measures; in contrast to what happened during those years we now observe a spread in birth intervals, so that, since 1960, period measures are much lower than cohort marital fertility measures.     

Self-Esteem and Low Status Groups: a Changing Scene?*

To insure the widest possible test of the hypothesis that individuals with lower ascribed or achieved status will demonstrate lower levels of self-esteem than higher status individuals, 972 subjects completed questionnaires which included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. North Florida residents were sampled using a disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. Seven groups were identified: psychiatric patients, prisoners, black or white college students, city residents, married black residents, and service-oriented professionals. When analyzing data for each group, the results indicated that persons with lower ascribed status (blacks, females, and older Americans) did not, as a group, have lower self-esteem scores than persons with higher ascribed status (Whites, males, and younger Americans). However, persons with lower achieved status in the areas of educational attainment and occupational prestige did have lower self-esteem scores than did persons of higher status. Further, having an institutionalized status—confinement at a state psychiatric hospital or a maximum security prison—is correlated with low self-esteem scores. Some possible explanations of these findings are explored.     

福柯和自由主义:理性,革命和反抗

在1978-1979年法兰西学院的演讲中,福柯引入了"管治能力"的概念.这个概念来自于基督教的牧师形象.由此出发,与马克思主义的政治经济学批判不同,福柯对自由主义持一定的赞赏态度.福柯和马克思都参与了宏大叙事的一般构架的建立,但他们的政治和哲学前提是不同的.马克思根植于自然法的传统走向革命,福柯则继承了英国激进主义传统走向反抗.这两种传统是可以进行深入对话的.     

Métier de sociologue,approche inductive et objet d'analyse. Brèves remarques à partir de Bourdieu

This article seeks to reveal the role played by the inductive approach in sociology. Grounded Theory assumes its full importance in formulating sociological explanations. However, the theory does pose a problem, in that the “method” is not based on clearly defined operations, which remain implicit. This article attempts to show that the object of analysis—what is being analyzed—makes perceptible the operations implicitly conceived by the analyst, based on Grounded Theory. With qualitative analysis software, such as Atlas.ti, it is possible to shed light on these operations. The article is illustrated by the theory of Pierre Bourdieu and the epistemological considerations he developed as a result of his qualitative inquiry, La Misère du monde. Cet article cherche à montrer le rôle que joue l'approche inductive en sociologie. La Grounded Theory revêt son importance pour formuler l'explication sociologique. Celle‐ci pose toutefois problème. En effet, la «méthode» ne repose pas sur des opérations clairement définies et celles‐ci restent implicites. Dans cet article, on cherche à montrer que l'objet d'analyse—ce sur quoi porte l'analyse—rend perceptibles les opérations que l'analyste conçoit implicitement en s'appuyant sur la Grounded Theory. Les logiciels d'analyse qualitative, comme Atlas.ti, permettent d'autre part de les mettre en évidence. L'article est illustré par la théorie de Pierre Bourdieu et les considérations épistémologiques qu'a développées cet auteur à la suite de son enquête qualitative sur la Misère du monde.     

Social,Relational and Network Determinants of Unprotected Anal Sex and HIV Testing Among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Beirut,Lebanon

Objectives: We examined the social, relational and network determinants of condom use and HIV testing among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Beirut. Methods: Two-hundred thirteen men were recruited via respondent driven sampling and administered a survey. Results: Sixty-four percent reported unprotected anal intercourse (UAI), including 23% who had UAI with unknown HIV status partners (UAIU); 62% of participants had tested for HIV. In multivariate analysis, being in a relationship was associated with UAI and HIV testing; lower condom self-efficacy was associated with UAIU and HIV testing; gay discrimination was associated with UAIU; MSM disclosure was associated with UAI, UAIU and HIV testing; and network centralization was associated with HIV testing. Conclusions: Multi-level social factors influence sexual health in MSM.     

Using the Shapley Decomposition to Disentangle the Impact of Circumstances and Efforts on Health Inequality

Following previous work on inequality in health opportunity, this paper attempts to determine the contribution of circumstances, efforts and lifestyle, and demographic variables to the overall inequality in health in Luxembourg. Health is measured via the answers given to a question on self-assessed health and is considered as an ordinal variable. The educational level of each parent, the financial situation of the family during childhood, the area of birth of the individual, and of his/her parents, and the year of immigration are considered as circumstances. Effort and lifestyle variables are proxied by information on the educational level of the individual, whether he/she smoked and whether he/she had a physical activity on a regular basis. Sex and age are considered as demographic variables. To solve the issue of correlation between circumstances and effort and lifestyle the estimation is implemented in two stages. In the first stage, each effort and lifestyle variable is regressed in a separate equation against the vector of circumstances and demographic variables and, in a second stage, the individual health status is regressed against the vector of circumstances and demographic variables along with the estimated residuals of the effort equations described previously. The respective impacts of the three categories of explanatory variables (circumstances, effort and lifestyle and demographic variables) on health inequality are derived via a Shapley decomposition of the likelihood ratio of the health ordered logit regression. It appears that differences in circumstances and effort and lifestyle explain each around a quarter of this likelihood ratio.     

High Sex Ratios at Birth in the Caucasus: Modern Technology to Satisfy Old Desires

During the 1990s, the sex ratio at birth increased considerably and simultaneously in the three independent Caucasian countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. At the end of the first decade of the twenty‐first century, levels remain abnormally high in Armenia and Azerbaijan (above 114 male births per 100 female births) and show erratic trends in Georgia. Analyzing data from demographic surveys carried out around 2005, we confirm the persistence of high sex ratios in these three countries and document significant differences in fertility intentions and behavior according to the sex of the previous child or children that constitute evidence of the practice of sex‐selective abortion. These countries combine societal features and medical systems that make this phenomenon possible: son preference in a context of low fertility and the possibility of prenatal sex selection given easy access to ultrasound screening and induced abortion. Why high sex ratios are observed only in these three countries of the sub‐region remains, however, an open question.     

Comparability of Health Care Responsiveness in Europe

The aim of this paper is to measure and to correct for the potential incomparability of responses to the SHARE survey on health care responsiveness. A parametric approach based on the use of anchoring vignettes is applied to cross-sectional data (2006–2007) in eleven European countries. More than 7,000 respondents aged 50 years old and over were asked to assess the quality of health care responsiveness in three domains: waiting time for medical treatment, quality of the conditions in visited health facilities, and communication and involvement in decisions about the treatment. Our results suggest that there is reporting heterogeneity across countries and across individuals within countries, and the degree of heterogeneity varies with the health care domain. Although leading countries in terms of health care responsiveness remain among the most successful even after correction for reporting heterogeneity, one may acknowledge many shifts in the ranking of the other countries.     

Multivariate non-linear time series modelling of exposure and risk in road safety research

Summary.  A multivariate non-linear time series model for road safety data is presented. The model is applied in a case-study into the development of a yearly time series of numbers of fatal accidents (inside and outside urban areas) and numbers of kilometres driven by motor vehicles in the Netherlands between 1961 and 2000. The model accounts for missing entries in the disaggregated numbers of kilometres driven although the aggregated numbers are observed throughout. We consider a multivariate non-linear time series model for the analysis of these data. The model consists of dynamic unobserved factors for exposure and risk that are related in a non-linear way to the number of fatal accidents. The multivariate dimension of the model is due to its inclusion of multiple time series for inside and outside urban areas. Approximate maximum likelihood methods based on the extended Kalman filter are utilized for the estimation of unknown parameters. The latent factors are estimated by extended smoothing methods. It is concluded that the salient features of the observed time series are captured by the model in a satisfactory way.