Fertility desires and fertility outcomes

Over the last 30 years Australian fertility rates have fallen more than could have been predicted from changes in the numbers of children desired by women when they first married. This paper charts changes in desired and completed fertility in Australia, matches originally desired fertility with that ultimately achieved and explores some factors which may affect the relation between fertility desires and fertility outcomes.     

Ethnicity and fertility desires in Ghana

Journal of Population Research - The extant literature shows that fertility desires are an important indicator for understanding and predicting the future course of fertility; however, little work...     

Couple childbearing desires, intentions, and births

Using new panel data from the National Surveys of Families and Households, I investigate the effects of wives’ and husbands’ childbearing desires on their spouses’ intentions, and the effects of spouses’ desires and intentions on subsequent births. The results show clearly that husbands’ desires and intentions influence couples’ births, with approximately equal force to that of wives’ desires and intentions. When couples disagreed about wanting a child, each partners’ intentions were shifted toward not having a child; and disagreement in desires or intentions were reflected in birth rates that were lower than average. These patterns were generally not different for couples with more or less traditional gender roles or attitudes.     

The effects of preconception desires and intentions on pregnancy wantedness

Do preconception intentions to conceive add to the prediction of pregnancy wantedness beyond the effect of preconception desires? This paper addresses that question, using data regarding the most recent pregnancy of 2,299 women respondents to the 2002 U.S. National Survey of Family Growth. We test a structural equation model predicting a woman’s pregnancy wantedness with her preconception desires, her perception of her partner’s preconception desires, and her preconception intentions. In this multivariate setting, preconception intentions do not predict pregnancy wantedness in the overall sample. However, they do predict wantedness in certain demographic contexts. We identify three patterns of change in our model that occur in selected contexts. We then use these patterns to hypothesize three psychosocial mechanisms by which preconception intentions may increase the wantedness of a pregnancy beyond that resulting from the woman’s preconception desires to get pregnant and her perception of her partner’s preconception desires.     

Fighting desires: Henry Miller's Queer Tropic

"Fighting Desires: Henry Miller's Queer Tropic" is an investigation of Tropic of Cancer that investigates the deeply repressed homoerotic desire that periodically surfaces. This reading is dependent upon an interpretation of Eve Sedgwick that proposes male sexuality as a continuum. By looking at the nature of the male-male relationships, as well as the lack of emotion and presence in the male-female relationships, I will show that the most intimate relationships are between men, and that these relationships are expressed through the telling of stories about (heterosexual) sex; this is the function of women within the novel: one has sex with a woman, not for the pleasure that the act brings, but for the pleasure that the recounting of the story to other men brings. Furthermore, I will look at Miller's use of puns within the novel and how they also contribute to a homoerotic reading. None of this is to argue that Miller was not homophobic and sexist--Miller very clearly was--the purpose of this essay is to show the complex nature of sexuality, even within a protagonist who asserts a very defined heterosexuality.     

New partnerships in widowhood in Spain: Realities and desires

ABSTRACT

Widowhood has traditionally been associated with the end of the family cycle; however, social and generational transformations in Spain are providing a new context for the development of new partnerships in widowhood. This study analyzes widowed persons who have found new partners and those who would be willing to do so, focusing on their characteristics and motives and related sociodemographic factors. Research is based on a sample of 306 widows and widowers in Spain taken from the survey Social Networks and Well-Being. The results reveal the importance of sociodemographic factors for both those who wish to have a partner as well as for those who have one. For the former, elements associated with quality of life are very important, while among those with a new partner, the key is not having an extensive family support network. The principal motives for looking for a new relationship are related to enjoying life more and not feeling alone; while those who reject a new relationship do so because of the belief that their lost partner is irreplaceable.     

Sibling loss and fertility desires in the high-mortality context of Peru

Despite demographers’ long-standing preoccupation with the effects of child mortality on women’s fertility desires, scholars continue to know little about the consequences of other pervasive mortality exposures. We use nationally representative data from the high-mortality context of Peru to examine whether the desire to have a(nother) child varies as a function of sibling loss and to assess heterogeneity in this association by women’s current number of children and a range of conditions related to siblings’ deaths. Women who have experienced sibling bereavement and have two or more children report higher odds of desiring another child. These effects are not contingent on the age or sex of the deceased sibling but are only significant if the sibling died during the respondent’s lifetime (not before). These findings highlight the theoretical and empirical import of investigating the relationship between fertility desires and a wider range of familial mortality exposures beyond own child mortality.     

Fertility desires and fertility: Hers,his, and theirs

The relationship between desired and achieved fertility may be misspecified by excluding husbands' fertility desires or by confounding effects of shared desires with the resolution of conflicting desires. Using couple data from the classic Princeton Fertility Surveys, we find relatively large husband effects on fertility outcomes as well as unique effects of spousal disagreement. Wives and husbands were equally likely to achieve fertility desires, and disagreeing couples experienced fertility rates midway between couples who wanted the same smaller or larger number of children. These conditions do not hold, however, when we include willingness to delay births for economic mobility as part of the measure of fertility desires. Among couples who both wanted a third child, only husbands' willingness to delay births had significant negative effects on birth rates.     

Birth control and its determinants

"The article presents the results of the three family [sample] surveys [in Poland]: 'Newlyweds Survey 1985', 'Family Survey 1987'...and 'Determinants and Consequences of Divorces'.... The subject of this article is: the methods of birth control which were used during married life, their moral evaluation and opinions about abortion.... This article indicates the influence of an unhappy marriage and of different phases of family life on the attitudes and opinions about birth control."     

Ecological and Motivational Determinants of Activation: Studying Compared to Sports and Watching TV

How can we enhance activation? Studying shouldbe a challenging, yet rewarding activity forstudents who intend to graduate. The Flowtheory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 1997) predictsthat differential levels of perceived challengeand skill (flow) are related to optimizedmental states and increased activation.However, the influence of concurrent mentalstates and specific environmental cues for thisstate of optimal experience is unknown. In thisstudy we explore the contextual and subjectivedeterminants of flow in relation to activationin studying, and compare this with sports andwatching TV or listening to the radio. Method: 43 undergraduate students at theUniversity of Maastricht were assessed with theExperience Sampling Method for one week(Delespaul, 1995). At random moments 10 timeseach day subjects evaluated the social context,activities, and mood states. Analyses were donewith multilevel random regression techniques.Results: We replicated the predictedflow-related patterns in activation andemotions. While overall activation wasincreased in high challenging moments(β = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.19), thiseffect was less pronounced during study(β = ?0.16; 95% CI: ?0.25, ?0.07). Skillslevels did not affect activation(β = ?0.01; 95% CI: ?0.06, 0.05).Concurrent emotions were independently andadditionally related to activation(Δχ² ₍₄₎ = 117.12,p < 0.0001). Unexpectedly, activation increasedwith demotivation (β = ?0.12; 95% CI:0.16, 0.07). We found highly significant andadditional effects of context for all theactivities (study: χ² = 732.63;p < 0.0001; R² = 0.30; active leisure:χ² = 753.40; p < 0.0001; R² = 0.31;and passive leisure: χ² = 555.86;p < 0.0001; R² = 0.24). Conclusions. TheFlow theory is a valuable model leading topredictions of optimal experience as well asactivation. However, the dynamics of activityengagement are more complex and related toconcurrent emotions and context. In the Dutchstudent culture, escaping boredom or compulsoryduties seems to drive individuals more thanpursuing flow.     

Socialization and demographic determinants of mortality expectations

Since subjective life expectancy (SLE) has been found related to a variety of personal orientations, the clarification of its determinants should facilitate understanding of social behavior. A theoretical model is presented which includes sociodemographic and socialization predictors. It was hypothesized that SLE would vary with exposure to early death among near relatives, family size, and desired longevity (DL). Exposure and DL were expected to vary with socioeconomic status (SES), age, and ethnic membership. Results from a sample of 513 students (18–29 years of age) indicated that the mean SLE of females exposed to same-sex early death was markedly lower than that of males or of females exposed to opposite-sex death. Among respondents with death exposure, family size was inversely related to SLE. SES had a direct effect on the dependent variable; the effects of age and ethnic membership were indirect. While death socialization attenuates SLE, it does not affect DL. It was suggested, therefore, that increased exposure to early death could heighten personal frustration, especially among females.Lynn D. Nelson and Julie A. Honnold are affiliated with the Department of Sociology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284. Requests for reprints should be directed to Lynn Nelson.     

The economic measurement and determinants of diversity

This paper has a 2-fold objective: (1) To introduce a measure that would be of general applicability in measuring diversity in different institutions. (2) To identify the determinants of diversity in child-care centers and, in particular, to examine whether the for-profit sector is less diverse than the not-for-profit sector in the child-care industry as the statistics suggest. Using our measure, we isolate factors that significantly influence diversity by using an economic model that makes diversity a decision variable of a firm. Two measures of diversity are suggested: absolute diversity and relative diversity (diversity relative to the surrounding community). To select a suitable index, the Herfindahl measure of concentration is considered relative to several suitable ecological indices measuring species diversity, and found to be virtually identical to such indices. Thus theH-index is used in both absolute and relative measures. Empirical estimation of both absolute and relative diversity equations use probability models and isolate factors that significantly influence both absolute diversity of child-care centers as well as their diversity relative to their respective counties. The data used is the recently released Profile of Child-Care Settings collected by the Mathematica Policy Research.     

Objective and subjective determinants of prospective residential mobility

The increasing interest in subjective as well as objective measures of well-being raises the issue of the relative importance of these two different types of measures when they are included as independent variables in analytical or predictive models. In the research reported here, survey data are used to evaluate the relative importance of objective and subjective indicators in providing an understanding of why households desire to move. Overall, it is found that subjective indicators add considerably to the explanation of mobility inclinations over and above that contributed by objective indicators. A comparison of explanatory powers for the full sets of objective and subjective predictors within two length of residence subgroups indicates some interesting differences, however. Objective and subjective predictors are close in explanatory power for longer-term residents, while subjective measures are considerably more important for shorter-term residents.     

Social and demographic determinants of abortion in Poland

Summary Most abortions in Polish hospitals and clinics are performed on social indications. In the 22 administrative areas of Poland, the high rates of divorce and large proportions of total population employed in non-agricultural pursuits reflect the individualistic approach to family planning which is characteristic of present-day urban society. Industrialization is disruptive to the normal functioning of the country's traditionally large families. In addition, the gross reproduction rate increases directly with the proportion of the peasant population in 17 voivodships and five large cities of Poland, whereas in the urban sector the gross reproduction rate has fallen below replacement level in the past few years. Rural birth rates will continue to decline. In view of increasing needs for future manpower, population policy aimed at increasing births through incentives to prospective mothers may achieve a limited degree of success in cities only among the educated segments of the female population.     

Trends and determinants of contraceptive use in Kenya

This study uses the 1977-1978 Kenya Fertility Survey and the 1989 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey to examine trends and determinants of contraceptive use in Kenya. A substantial increase in contraceptive use occurred in Kenya over the decade. Yet although the increase was shared by all groups in the country, the amount of change differed greatly. A regression decomposition procedure revealed that shifts in population composition--that is, an increase in better educated women and in the proportion of women who want to cease childbearing--were the primary sources of aggregate change in contraceptive use.     

Socioeconomic determinants of fertility in China

This paper reports the first set of estimates of the socioeconomic determinants of fertility in China using micro-data available from China's 1985 In-Depth Fertility Survey. Based on existing microeconomic theories of fertility, an econometric model was specified and estimated. The results indicate that even after age, marriage duration and child mortality are taken into account, education level of the woman, occupational status of the husband, the place of former and current residence, sex preference for boys, durable goods ownership, and family structure affect fertility. For the middle cohorts (aged 25–34 years in 1985), the relationship between fertility and education takes the form of a J-shaped curve.This paper is drawn from Essay II of my Ph. D. thesis submitted to McMaster University. I am grateful to Frank Denton and Byron Spencer for discussion in connection with the thesis and comments on earlier versions of this paper, to Ronald Lee, the external examiner of the thesis, for many insightful comments, and to Martin Dooley, Lonnie Magee and two anonymous referees for very helpful suggestions. I would also like to thank International Statistical Institute Research Center for supplying the data used in this study.     

Socioeconomic determinants of China's urban fertility

This paper examines socioeconomic forces other than population policies and family planning programs that have affected the fertility transition in urban China. The authors argue that before and since the intensification of population planning activities, the government influenced fertility directly and indirectly through socialization of the economy, the transformation of the Chinese family, and the provision of education, employment, health, medical, welfare, cultural, and related services in urban areas. The various social institutions and subsystems of society have greatly weakened the motivation for large families. The byproducts of the slow urbanization process in urban China including housing shortages, unemployment, rising living standards, changes in the cost of raising a child, and urban-rural downward mobility have affected the social and economic costs of childbearing, which in turn have affected the postponement of childbearing. Thus, our considerations of urban China's fertility transition must be broadened to include the issues of social development strategy in Chinese urban experience.