The Rising Share of Nonmarital Births: Is it Only Compositional Effects?

A recent article by Gray, Stockard, and Stone contended that the increase in the proportion of births to unmarried women since 1974 in the United States was not caused by any major change in underlying fertility behavior, but rather by a decrease in the proportion of women who are married, which increased both the population at risk and the birth rate of unmarried women relative to that of married women. In this comment, I argue that the statistical test of this explanation used in the article is invalid because the variables in the analysis are not stationary time series. Correct statistical tests reject the explanation. In particular, I demonstrate persistent, nonstationary deviations from the relationships predicted by the theory advanced by Gray et al. For long periods, the proportion unmarried played only a small role in the changes in the ratio of nonmarital to marital birth rates, contrary to the theory.     

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.     

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.     

Did Australia’s Baby Bonus Increase Fertility Intentions and Births?

In May 2004, the Australian government announced a “Baby Bonus” policy, paying women an initial A$3,000 per new child. We use household panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (N = 14,932) and a simultaneous equations approach to analyze the effects of this bonus on fertility intentions and ultimately births. The results indicate that opportunity costs influence intentions and births in predictable ways. Fertility intentions rose after the announcement of the Baby Bonus, and the birth rate is estimated to have risen modestly as a result. The marginal cost to the government for an additional birth is estimated to be at least A$3,000 per new child. We use household panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (N = 14,932) and a simultaneous equations approach to analyze the effects of this bonus on fertility intentions and ultimately births. The results indicate that opportunity costs influence intentions and births in predictable ways. Fertility intentions rose after the announcement of the Baby Bonus, and the birth rate is estimated to have risen modestly as a result. The marginal cost to the government for an additional birth is estimated to be at least A126,000.     

Racial-Ethnic Differences in U.S. Married Women’s and Men’s Housework

Married women continue to spend more time doing housework than men and economic resources influence women’s housework more strongly than men’s. To explain this, gender theorists point to how gender figures into identities, family interactions, and societal norms and opportunity structures. The extent of this configuration varies culturally and, in the United States, by race-ethnicity because of how race-ethnicity conditions access to resources and influences gender relations within marriages. Housework levels and gender differences may be lower in Black married couples compared to other couples because of Black women’s higher historical levels of employment and consequently long-standing need to balance work and family responsibilities. Race-ethnicity also likely conditions the symbolic meaning and thus association of economic resources and housework. We use pooled time diary data from the 2003 to 2007 American Time Use Study from 26,795 married women and men to investigate how and why race-ethnicity influences housework. Our results indicate Hispanic and Asian women do more cooking and cleaning compared with White and Black women and the inverse relationship between women’s earnings and housework is steeper for Hispanic women compared with other women. We find no evidence that married Black men devote more time to housework than White men, either core or occasional, unlike earlier studies.     

“Hedge Your Bets”: Technology’s Role in Young Gay Men’s Relationship Challenges

Technology is playing an increasingly pervasive role among young gay men in the process of meeting potential romantic or sexual partners. We investigated challenges posed by technology related to young gay men’s relationships. Focus groups (n = 9) of young gay men aged 18–24 (n = 43) were transcribed verbatim, and thematic analysis was used to identify two major themes regarding challenges to relationship development and maintenance. Subthemes include unrealistic expectations of relationships, inauthentic self-presentation online, sexual primacy over romance, increased opportunities for infidelity, and jealousy. The implications of this study for sexual education and sexual health promotion 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.     

Perceived Similarity With Gay Men Mediates the Effect of Antifemininity on Heterosexual Men’s Antigay Prejudice

This research examined the hypothesis that heterosexual men’s motivation to differentiate themselves from gay men mediates the relationship between the antifemininity norm of masculinity and antigay prejudice. We assessed masculinity through three concepts: status, thoughness, and antifemininity. Participants then reported their perceived similarity with gay men and their antigay prejudice. The results showed that antifemininity was the best predictor of both perceived similarity and antigay prejudice: The more people endorsed the antifemininity norm, the more they perceived themselves as dissimilar from gay men and showed antigay prejudice. More important, perceived similarity mediated the effect of antifemininity on antigay prejudice. These findings provide direct evidence for the link between masculinity and the motivation to differentiate oneself from gay men, and they suggest that antigay prejudice accomplishes the identity function of maintaining unambiguous gender boundaries.     

Constructions and Negotiations of Sexuality in Canadian Federal Men’s Prisons

ABSTRACT

Nuances lacing the organization of sexuality across cultures and contexts shape sexual behavior and identity. In this article, the culture and understandings of sexual identity and behavior in Canadian men’s federal prisons are examined to reveal how prisoners construct and interpret their own sexuality, as well as that of others, within the heteronormative prison space. Drawing from interviews with formerly incarcerated men, we explore how sexuality constitutes a product of dominant cultural discourses that differentiates between sexual behavior and identity. We frame how sexuality is constructed and regulated in prison within the theoretical context of shame and stigmatization, finding definitions of heterosexuality that do not preclude same-sex sexual activity.     

Witnessing a body in decline: Men’s and women’s perceptions of an altered physical appearance

ABSTRACT

There has been a tendency within the literature to ignore how men and women who are very ill and at the end of life perceive and experience their visibly altered bodies. This article aims to provide new insights about this matter. A qualitative research approach was adopted. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 hospice patients, 20 family members, and 20 members of hospice staff. Findings reveal that because of masculine and feminine norms, physical appearance is more a matter of concern to women than to men who are close to death. This contradicts theories that suggest that patients experience a disinvestment on their sense of masculinity and femininity alongside the process of bodily deterioration and decay prior impending potential death.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: “It’s Like Birth Control for HIV”: Communication and Stigma for Gay Men on PrEP

Statement of Retraction

We, the Editors and Publishers of Journal of Homosexuality, have retracted the following article:

Grimm, J., & Schwartz, J. “It’s Like Birth Control for HIV”: Communication and Stigma for Gay Men on PrEP. Journal of Homosexuality, 66, 9, (2019), 1179–1197. doi:10.1080/00918369.2018.1495978

We are now cognizant of a substantially similar version of this article which was submitted to, and published in Health Communications.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.

The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.     

Tasks for China’s Aging Programme

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The Impact of Paternity Leave on Fathers’ Future Earnings

Using Norwegian registry data, we investigate the effect of paternity leave on fathers’ long-term earnings. If the paternity leave increased long-term father involvement, then we should expect a reduction in fathers’ long-term earnings as they shift time and effort from market to home production. For identification, we use the Norwegian introduction of a paternity-leave quota in 1993, reserving four weeks of the total of 42 weeks of paid parental leave exclusively for the father. The introduction of the paternity-leave quota led to a sharp increase in rates of leave-taking for fathers. We estimate a difference-in-differences model that exploits differences in fathers’ exposure to the paternity-leave quota by the child’s age and year of observation. Our analysis suggests that four weeks of paternity leave during the child’s first year decreases fathers’ future earnings, an effect that persists through our last point of observation, when the child is 5 years old. A battery of robustness tests supports our results.     

Men’s condom use in higher-risk sex: Trends in five sub-Saharan African countries

This paper analyses trends in men’s condom use at last higher-risk sex (i.e., with a non-marital, non-cohabiting partner) using the two most recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in five sub-Saharan African countries: Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Burkina Faso. Condom use is an important method of preventing HIV transmission. Encouragingly, higher-risk sex has declined in four of the five countries, while condom use rose substantially in Cameroon, Tanzania and Burkina Faso but only had a minor increase in Kenya and Zambia, where use at last higher-risk sex remains below 50 per cent. There are no clear patterns of change across countries in the predictive strength of the explanatory variables between the two most recent surveys, although evidence of a widening gap in use by education in Cameroon is identified. In each country, lack of education remains a strong barrier to condom use in higher-risk sex.     

Irish University Students’ Support for the Human Rights of Lesbian Women and Gay Men

Irish university students attending a second year social psychology module (N = 353) were randomly allocated either a gay or lesbian version of a 25-item scale measuring support for the human rights of sexual minorities. Results indicated that, in comparison to female participants, males evidenced significantly lower levels of support. Further, this difference remained irrespective of whether the target was a gay man or a lesbian woman. Exploratory analyses also revealed that participants' support for the human rights of sexual minorities was inversely associated with their levels of political conservatism and religiousness (as determined by self-identification and church attendance measures), and was positively associated with having “out” gay and lesbian friends. Limitations of this study and avenues for further inquiry are articulated.     

On Incorporating China’s Time Bank for Old-Age Service

Based on domestic and international researches, this paper points out time banking will enable the nation to accelerate the nation’s social service for elder people. Its pattern of service exchange suits China’s low-cost strategy of dealing with the population aging; It is also in accordance with our attempt of multi-level old-age service system; And it is in favor of our construction of spiritual civilization. Hence, it is necessary for the state government to provide the related policies, to promote the system construction from high level to low level, and to finally realize the whole country’s system framework and the mutual information exchange.     

Does Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Matter for Children’s Health Status? Insights from Northern Ghana

Given that women in rural communities in developing countries are responsible for the nutrition and health-related decisions affecting children in their care, their empowerment may influence the health status of their children. The association between women’s empowerment, measured by using a recently developed Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index, and children’s health status is examined for a sample of households in Northern Ghana applying a Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model. The MIMIC approach is used to link multiple indicator variables with multiple independent variables through a “single underlying” latent variable. Height-for-age and weight-for-height z-scores are used as indicators of the underlying children’s health status and women’s empowerment in agriculture and control variables are used as the multiple independent variables. Our results show that neither the composite empowerment score used to capture women’s empowerment in agriculture nor its decomposed components are statistically significant in their association with the latent children’s health status. However, the associations between children’s health status and control variables such as mother’s education, child’s age, household’s hunger scale and residence locale are statistically significant. Results also confirm the existence of the ‘single underlying’ common latent variable. Of the two health status indicators, height-for-age scores and weight-for- height scores, the former exhibited a relatively stronger association with the latent health status. While promoting women’s empowerment to enhance their ability to make strategic life choices, it is important to carefully consider how the achievement of these objectives will impact the women’s well-being and the well-being of the children in their care.