Relationships Between Parents’ And Children’s Salient Values For Future And Children’s Overall Life Satisfaction. A Comparison Across Countries

In this paper, a model is set forth relating (a) overall life satisfaction of children to children’s values and (b) children’s values to parents’ values. Using confirmatory factor analysis models three dimensions of values (materialistic values, capacities and knowledge values and interpersonal relationship values) consistently emerged in 5 countries (Brazil, South Africa, Norway, Spain and India) for both parents and children. There was a considerable amount of missing data, mainly because the parent’s questionnaire was often not returned. Full information maximum likelihood estimators with missing data were thus used.Multiple-group analyses were next performed to assess factor invariance of the three value dimensions across the five countries for both parents and children. This implies testing the equality of factor loadings and intercepts across groups. This equality is required to ensure that factors have the same interpretation in all groups, which is necessary when comparing any aspect of the factor distribution across groups.The only two countries for which the interpretation of value dimensions was invariant for both parents and children were Brazil and Spain. The results of other countries could thus not be compared. Multiple-group structural equation models revealed that both parents and children scored higher on most values in Brazil than in Spain. In both countries, each child value dimension was only significantly predicted by the same value dimension of the parents. R-squares were in the 4–12% range and slightly higher in Brazil. The only value dimension that had some effect on overall life satisfaction was capacities and knowledge, which was so in both countries.Acknowledgements are due to the country project directors and their associates Per Egil Mjaavatn (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway), Usha Nayar (Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India), Irene Rizzini (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Rose September (Western Cape University, South Africa) and Ferran Casas (Catalan Network of Child Researchers – XCIII – in co-operation with the University of Girona, Spain) for permitting us to use part of their project and to Childwatch International, Oslo, for sponsorship.     

Sodomy’s Penumbra

This article advocates a sodomitical approach to sodomy. Its approach is framed alongside and against three historical glosses on sodomy law: first, that sodomy law instantiates homophobia; second, that sodomy law targets sexual violence against boys; third, that sodomy law reaches assaultive sex against women that did not register as assaultive enough to qualify as “rape” by sexist juries. The first story of sodomy law is mostly wrong. The other two glosses pivot on protection: protection of boys or protection of girls and women. These accounts, tethered to identitarianism, underplay sodomy law’s multiplicity, as a source and symptom of our conflicted understandings of when sex is sex and when sexual violence is rape.

The first part of the article explains my choice of sodomitical sites. The second part complicates the story of sodomy as phobic. The third part complements the historiography of sodomy as protective against boys. The fourth part argues that the gloss on sodomy law as a corrective to disbelieved women is appealing but untrue. The final part makes the case that fellatio matters. The prevalence of forcible oral sex in sodomy cases intimates a cultural pluripotence of oral sex, as well as shifting definitions—in law and life—of sex and rape. This last story of sodomy law remains undetected under an identitarian radar.     

India’s ‘Missing Women’ and Men’s Sexual Risk Behavior

Although scholars and policymakers have long been concerned with the ??missing women?? of India, little rigorous research has examined the consequences of India??s sex ratio imbalance for young men??s sexual risk behavior and reproductive health. We use data from the third wave of India??s 2005?C2006 National Family and Health Survey to examine the influence of the community female-to-male sex ratio at ages 10?C39 on men??s likelihood of marrying early in life, of engaging in premarital, multi-partnered, and commercial sex, and of contracting a sexually-transmitted disease. We estimate logistic regression models that control for respondents?? demographic and socioeconomic status and that adjust for the clustering of observations within communities. Net of the effects of other characteristics, the female-to-male sex ratio is positively and significantly associated with the likelihood that men marry prior to age 18 and inversely and significantly associated with the odds that men have had intercourse with a commercial sex worker. However, no significant net associations are observed between the sex ratio and the other outcomes. Education, wealth, religious affiliation, caste, and geographic region emerge as significant predictors of Indian men??s sexual risk behaviors.     

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.     

China’s Urbanization Strategy

This research develops specific goals,paths and strategies of urbanization in China upon analyzing the Chinese characteristics and future trends of urbanization.Urbanization will become basic national conditions of China’s future social development,which will have significant impacts on the sources and driving forces of future prosperity and development.However,current challenges in China’s urbanization are that population urbanization lags behind industrialization and land urbanization,and urbanization of the household registered population lags behind urbanization of the resident population.China’s urbanization development will be shifted from a pure speed approach to an approach combining speed with quality during the "Twelfth Five-Year plan" period,and the economic reform will enter into a new stage characterized by promoting in-depth urbanization and urban-rural integration.An urbanization model with Chinese characteristics would be developed by taking urbanization as the leading force in deepening the reform,directing at household registration system reform and employment promotion,enhancing urbanization quality,and promoting equalization of rural and urban public services.     

Can LARC Fulfill Its Potential to Reduce U.S. Women’s Unintended Pregnancy Risk? Examining Women’s Contraception and Childbearing in the Year Before Initiating LARC

Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) have received increased attention in recent decades for their potential to reduce the high level of unintended pregnancy. We know little about women’s contraceptive use and (unintended) childbearing prior to LARC initiation, even though it provides vital context to considering the extent to which increased LARC use could be expected to reduce the U.S. unintended pregnancy rate. Data from 849 women who initiated LARC in the 2–3 years prior to the 2006–2015 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth were analyzed to describe U.S. women’s contraceptive use and (unintended) childbearing in the year before initiating LARC. Results show that more than half of women (55.4%) who initiated LARC did so within a year of giving birth, with 47.3% of these births resulting from an unintended pregnancy. Among women without a recent birth, 5.0% had last relied on sterilization, 54.7% had last used a moderately-effective method, 34.7% had last used a less-effective method, and 5.6% had not used contraception in the year prior to initiating LARC. These findings advance understanding of the extent to which increased LARC use could be expected to reduce the unintended pregnancy rate. Women initiating LARC after a recent birth are selective of those at high risk of unintended pregnancy. In contrast, the majority of LARC initiators without a recent birth last relied on a moderately-effective method or sterilization—a pattern that could reduce LARC’s impact on the unintended pregnancy rate.

     

Mothers’ Sexual Identity and Children’s Health

Sexual minority women face a plethora of structural, socioeconomic, and interpersonal disadvantages and stressors. Research has established negative associations between women’s sexual minority identities and both their own health and their infants’ birth outcomes. Yet a separate body of scholarship has documented similarities in the development and well-being of children living with same-sex couples relative to those living with similarly situated different-sex couples. This study sought to reconcile these literatures by examining the association between maternal sexual identity and child health at ages 5–18 using a US sample from the full population of children of sexual minority women, including those who identify as mostly heterosexual, bisexual, or lesbian, regardless of partner sex or gender. Analyses using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N?=?8978) followed women longitudinally and examined several measures of their children’s health, including general health and specific developmental and physical health conditions. Analyses found that children of mostly heterosexual and bisexual women experienced health disadvantages relative to children of heterosexual women, whereas the few children of lesbian women in our sample evidenced a mixture of advantages and disadvantages. These findings underscore that to understand sexual orientation disparities and the intergenerational transmission of health, it is important to incorporate broad measurement of sexual orientation that can capture variation in family forms and in sexual minority identities.

     

Still Trapped in the U.S. Media’s Closet: Representations of Gender-Variant,Pre-Adolescent Children

Many studies have examined representations of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. media. Yet they have centered on portrayals of adults or teenagers. This investigation considered a potential LGBT population that has been neglected in media research, namely gender-variant, preadolescent children. Surveying the U.S. media at large but with an emphasis on television, the article reveals that gender-creative youth are nearly invisible. When depictions of gender-variant kids do appear, they often focus on either children who express extreme gender dysphoria or in some way signify the “tragic queer” motif (or both). The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Gibrat’s law for countries

A reassessment of Gibrat’s Law in the context of country size is carried out in this paper. In addition, how similarly population is distributed in cities and countries is analyzed from a temporal perspective. Although evidence of Gibrat’s Law is found, it is weaker than that previously established in Rose (J Money Credit Bank 38(8):2225–2246, 2006). This is due to the methodology applied and is especially appreciable in very small countries. Nonetheless, we observe that the population growth process in countries is similar to that of cities. As a result, the similarities between how the population is distributed in these two geographical categories have increased over time.     

Estimating Nantucket’s Effective Population

Population Research and Policy Review - This paper extends demographers’ traditional approaches to estimating local populations using symptomatic data. We augmented those approaches in order...     

Gay Porn’s Bareback Momentum

ABSTRACT

A profound shift has occurred in the last decade in mainstream commercial gay pornography from condoms to “bareback” (condomless) depictions of anal sex between men. This article explores gay porn’s “bareback momentum” as demonstrated by the displacement of condoms in the 10 most visited gay porn Web sites (that have operated for 10 years or more). While all 10 began by releasing condom pornography, the study finds all except one (Falcon) have since gone bareback—represented visually as a timeline. The sites analyzed are, in order of popularity: Sean Cody, Helix Studios, Lucas Entertainment, Corbin Fisher, Bel Ami, Next Door Studios, Randy Blue, Falcon Studios, Cocky Boys, and Chaos Men. Textual analysis reads each site’s transition individually, yet connections between the sites are the article’s central concern, from which an emphasis on couples and break-up narratives is revealed. Falcon’s commitment to retain the condom is attributed to its brand identity.     

China’s Social Security Policy

(Continued from Page 24, Vol. 21, No. 4-5)VI. Social WelfareThe Chinese government actively promotes thedevelopment of social welfare, raising funds throughvarious channels to provide social welfare benefitsfor the elderly, orphans and the disabled.Social Welfare for the ElderlyIn accordance with the Law of the People’s Republicof China on the Protection of Elderly People’s Rightsand Interests, the state and society have adoptedmeasures to improve conditions for such people’slivelih…