Demographic and Socio-economic Influences on Recent British Marital Breakdown Patterns

The advantages of large-scale multi-purpose surveys compared with official divorce records for examining marital breakdown are assessed, and the extent of under-recording of the concept of breakdown in the latter source is estimated. Demographic and socio-economic differentials in breakdown are examined and the former are found to be generally more powerful. A proportional-hazards life-table model is used to establish the impact of childlessness on divorce in a more satisfactory way than hitherto. Among fertile couples, the length of the first birth interval is found to be particularly important as a risk factor influencing breakdown. Controlling for demographic factors, such as age at marriage and fertility status, is shown to modify the observed crude differences between social classes. Housing tenure and personal factors associated with the couple's individual circumstances are more important than social class in explaining marital breakdown, with age at marriage retaining a strongly persisting and remarkably constant effect whatever other variables are included in the analysis.     

Social class and socio-economic differentials in divorce in England and Wales

Summary The characteristics of a national sample of over 2,000 couples who divorced in 1979 are analysed according to the social class and socio-economic position of the husband. The demographic variables investigated for social class and socio-economic differentials include ages at marriage and divorce, duration of marriage, previous marital status, family size and the presence of a pre-maritally conceived child. In addition, an age-standardized measure, the 'standardized divorce ratio' is used to summarise the relative rates of divorce for the different social classes and socio-economic groups. Using this measure, the rate of divorce for couples in Social Class I is only half that for the average couple, whereas for couples in Social Class V and couples in which the husband is unemployed it is more than double.     

The Effect of Parental Education on Marital Fertility in Developing Countries

The effects of parents' education on marital fertility are analysed with data from 38 Surveys in the WFS programme, and a two-parameter model in which the age-dependent level of fertility and a duration-dependent slope of fertility are estimated. The level parameter reflects post-partum infecundity and, in some populations, contraceptive spacing of births. The slope parameter reflects parity-specific birth control. The effects of the husband's and of the wife's education are estimated, both before and after adjustment for other socio-economic factors. The schooling of the wife emerges as a more decisive influence on fertility than that of the husband, with substantial net effects even after controlling for urban-rural residence, husband's socio-economic status and wife's employment. In Latin America and the Arab states, monotonic declines in marital fertility are found, as the level of the wife's education increases. However, in many Asian and African populations, the highest fertility is observed among women with moderate exposure to schooling, because the relaxation of traditional spacing mechanisms is not matched by increased birth control. This regional diversity cannot be explained convincingly by national levels of economic development or efforts made to popularize contraception, but appears to relect ill-understood cultural factors.     

Leisure before and after parenthood

The leisure time of 117 wives and husbands was studied to determine the effect of parenthood on this time allocation. Data from both a weekday and a weekend day, both before and after the birth of the first child were analyzed. Ordinary least squares regression was used to analyze the time use model which controlled for weekend/weekday, and looked at the effects of personal characteristics such as wife's education and employment status, husband's wage rate, and number of years married as well as parental status. The time of the wife and the husband and the ratio of the wife's to husband's time were negatively related to parental status. Each personal characteristic was negatively related to the wife/husband ratio of leisure time and unrelated to husband's leisure.     

Racial differences in occupational status and income in South Africa, 1880 and 1881

Using data on employed men from the 1980 and 1991 South African Censuses, we analyze the determinants of occupational status and income. Whites are found to have much higher occupational status, and especially income, than members of other racial groups. Most of the racial differentials in occupational status can be explained by racial differences in the personal assets that determine occupational attainment (especially education), but only a much smaller fraction of the White/non-White income differential can be so explained. Despite a modest reduction between 1980 and 1991 in the role of race in socioeconomic attainment, the overall picture shows more stability than change.     

The Risk of an Unwanted Birth: The Changing Context of Contraceptive Sterilization in the U.S.

Life-table estimates indicate that one-quarter of U.S. women intend no more births by age 25, one-half by age 27, and three-quarters by age 30. The resulting long period at risk of unwanted fertility is argued to be an important underlying dimension of the revolution in attitudes to and practice of sterilization. Life-table estimates are then considered of the timing of sterilization after the last wanted birth. Almost one-quarter of all couples select sterilization within the first year after they have had the number of children they desire. Recent experience would imply that four-fifths of all couples will eventually use contraceptive sterilization. In order to examine the determinants of men's and women's sterilization, logistic regression is used with a polytomous dependent variable: sterilization of the woman, sterilization of the man, or no sterilization within four years of the last wanted birth. Covariates considered are age and parity at last wanted birth, year and duration of marriage at last wanted birth, wife's and husband's education, wife's and husband's religion, whether residence is in a central city, region, pill-use history and timing-failure histories before the last wanted birth, and unwanted birth. Large and significant effects are found for most of these variables, and these effects change in interpretable ways between early innovative behaviour and sterilization during the most recent period when it was widely accepted.     

Estimating the completeness of death registration

In this paper, U.S. data from the 1981 Child Health Supplement are used to estimate the effect of a child's disability or serious chronic illness on: (1) the risk of the parents' divorcing before the child reaches the age of 11, and (2) the mother's chances of remarriage after divorce. Divorce is significantly more common among the parents of disabled or sickly children than among those of healthy children, and these disruptive effects of a child's frailty are even stronger when children are between six and nine years old than when they are younger. Possibly, divorce only becomes a viable option for some parents once a sickly child has started to spend part of the day away from home, in school. In contrast, a child's health status does not predict the mother's waiting time to remarriage. A range of potentially confounding demographic factors are controlled in the models, and their effects on children's chances of experiencing parental divorce are as expected. For example, having a mother who married young significantly predicts parental divorce.     

Parental wealth and children's outcomes over the life-course in Brazil: A propensity score matching analysis

Parental wealth – as distinct from income, education and other parental socioeconomic resources – may play a large role in children's socioeconomic outcomes, particularly in developing countries, characterized by economic volatility, a weak social safety net and limited access to credit. Using a propensity score matching approach, we examine the influence of parental wealth on adult children's schooling, school quality, occupational status, consumption level, and wealth holdings in Brazil. Findings suggest a substantial effect of parental wealth on all these outcomes, with a positive effect of even modest levels of wealth. The effect of parental wealth on occupational status is largely mediated by parental investment in more and better education for children. In contrast, the effect on children's consumption and wealth is largely unmediated by labor market resources and rewards, a pattern that is more pronounced for sons than for daughters. This suggests direct parental financial assistance. Sensitivity analysis indicates that hidden bias emerging from unobserved confounders should have to be unlikely large to question inference of a causal influence of high levels of parental wealth, although the influence of low levels of wealth may be more susceptible to hidden bias.     

Causes of fertility decline in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union II

Abstract The first part of this study (which appeared in the preceding issue of Population Studies) assessed the extent of the decline in fertility in the countries of the area during the last 10-15 years, and analyzed the purely demographic aspects ofthis phenomenon. Part II examines the socio-economic differentials in fertility, with regard to such variables as urban-rural residence, socio-occupational and employment status of women, educational attainment, income and housing conditions, and the consequent impact of structural changes in these characteristics of the population on observed fertility trends. The broad conclusion is that the fertility differentials usually found in western societies are also relevant to the socialist countries of eastern Europe, and that the dramatic falls in fertility in the 1950's and the 1960's have largely been the outcome ofthe deep and rapid structural changes, particularly those associated with urbanization, educational attainment and the incidence of female employment. The last part of the study is concerned with the impact on post-war fertility trends of social legislation and of general economic policies, particularly in the fields of employment and income. An appraisal of the extent of family planning is followed by a discussion of the recent pro-natalist measures introduced in most countries of the area and of their effectiveness.     

Social Class Inequality in Mortality From 1921 to 1972 in England and Wales

In this paper the data on occupational and social class mortality published decennially for England and Wales are used to examine the trend in the size of class differentials in mortality from 1921 to 1972 for adult men, married women and infants. Using summary measures which take into account changes in the relative sizes of the social classes over time, it was found that absolute inequality in mortality increased among adult men and married women during the 1950s and 1960s and relative inequality increased for all three groups. Two widely recognized potential sources of error, changes in the occupational composition of the social classes over time, and discrepancies between the numerators and denominators of occupation-specific death rates are examined to determine their effect on the trend indicated, and the initial findings are confirmed. Finally, the possible causes and implications of rising inequality coincident with declining overall levels of mortality, relative affluence, and the uniform availability of basic medical services to all socio-economic sub-groups of the population are considered.     

Demographic characteristics,work complexity and economic setting as social status determinants

Various aspects of social standing are significantly, though differently, determined by demographic characteristics, by employment in different economic sectors and industries, and by work complexity. Various sectors and industries influence differently status achievement, and are characterized by different configurations of status determinants of their workforces. The public (government) sector is more meritocratic than the private one, as far as income is concerned. Also, the male achievement pattern seems to be more meritocratic, while the female pattern is more sensitive to transient influences. The indicators of socio-economic status, occupational prestige and income reflect separate dimensions of social standing. The indicators of work complexity with data, people and things are good predictors of individual's social position.     

The joint effects of marriage partners’ socioeconomic positions on the risk of divorce

This study investigated the joint effects of spouses' socioeconomic positions on the risk of divorce in Finland. For couples in which both partners were at the lowest educational level, the risk of divorce was lower than could be expected on the basis of the previously documented overall inverse association between each spouse's education and the risk of divorce. Women who were employed or were homemakers, and who had employed husbands, had comparatively stable marriages; couples in which the husband, the wife, or both partners were unemployed had an elevated risk of divorce. A husband's high income decreased the risk of divorce, and a wife's high income increased the risk at all levels of the other spouse's income, but especially when the wife's income exceeded the husband's.     

Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Study of Multiple Outcomes

In this study, I examined gender differences in the consequences of divorce by tracing annual change in 20 outcome measures covering four domains: economic, housing and domestic, health and well-being, and social. I used data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) and fixed-effects panel regression models on a sample of N = 18,030 individuals initially observed in a marital union, N = 1,220 of whom divorced across the observation period (1984–2015). Three main findings emerged from the analysis. First, men were more vulnerable to short-term consequences of divorce for subjective measures of well-being, but postdivorce adaptation alleviated gender differences in these outcomes. Second, a medium-term view on multiple outcomes showed more similarity than differences between women and men. The medium-term consequences of divorce were similar in terms of subjective economic well-being; mental health, physical health, and psychological well-being; residential moves, homeownership, and satisfaction with housework; and chances of repartnering, social integration with friends and relatives, and feelings of loneliness. Third, the key domain in which large and persistent gender differences emerged were women’s disproportionate losses in household income and associated increases in their risk of poverty and single parenting. Taken together, these findings suggest that men’s disproportionate strain of divorce is transient, whereas women’s is chronic.     

Socio-economic correlates of fecundability in a sample of taiwanese women

Estimates of fecundability (monthly probability of conception) in the absence of contraception are derived from the frequency distribution of conceptive delays immediately following marriage, reported by 2,443 married women aged 20 to 39 included in the Taichung (Taiwan) Intensive Fertility Survey of 1962. Average fecundability of women is positively associated with their socio-economic status. These differentials are not accounted for by differences among socio-economic groups with respect to memory and truncation biases (associated with the marriage duration), wife’s age at marriage, or unreported premarital conceptions. A Multiple Classification Analysis suggests that among the socio-economic characteristics, husband’s education, rural background, and modern family type are the more important predictors of fecundability. The importance of genetic factors as opposed to cultural factors in producing these socio-economic differences in fecundability can not be evaluated systematically. Moreover, the relation of a couple’s privacy, their attitude toward family building, and patterns of mate selection to their socioeconomic status would have to be taken into account before the differences in fecundability could be attributed to factors such as nutrition, health, or infections which might directly influence their physiological ability to conceive.     

Differential fertility in peasant communities: A study of Six Iranian Villages

Summary This paper attempts to study the relation between socio-economic status and fertility in a sample of six villages in Iran. An index of socio-economic status was constructed. The data reveal positive association between socio-economic status and fertility behaviour of rural couples. When duration of marriage, age of woman at marriage and contraceptive use were introduced into the socio-economic status-fertility relationships, they failed to alter the original findings. Because socio-economic status is related to a number of variables which directly or indirectly influence fertility, additional variables such as miscarriage, stillbirth and lactation must be incorporated into rural surveys on fertility differentials.     

Fertility and social mobility among teachers

Social mobility is defined as the teacher's present position in the professional hierarchy relative to his father's occupation, and fertility as the average number of children per married male teacher after 10 years of marriage. A sample of all male teachers in gran-earning schools in England and Wales was used for the study. The hypothesis examined is that put forward and tested in one form or another by numerous authors, that upward mobility is associated with relatively low fertility; and Berent's finding, that among persons of equal social status social origin is negatively correlated with size of family of procreation.

The study of teachers fails to reveal any relation for either of the hypotheses. This also holds when account is taken of the wife's social origin and size of family of origin of the teacher. The latter analysis suggests, however, that this was a factor in the teacher's own rise in the social scale. The question remaines why teachers do not conform to the national pattern shown to exist by Berent. It is argued that while teachers' socal origin still affects their choice of marriage partner, its influence is gradually obliterated by the overriding and homogenising influence pattern of the teacher's life. This suggests that care must be exercised in applying a general finding to selected populations and calls for more detailed study of other occupational groups to explain the forces at work in the process of social mobility.     

The Changing Pattern of Educational Differentials in Divorce in the Context of Gender Egalitarianization: The Case of Taiwan

Regarding educational differentials in divorce, similar trends have been reported across countries. Some report increasing educational differentials, while others identify an educational crossover pattern. The commonality is that education seems to play a role of stabilizing marriage more than ever before. Using data from the Women??s Marriage, Fertility, and Employment Survey, this study investigates the case of Taiwan by portraying the changing pattern of women??s educational differentials in divorce. There are three major findings. First, among previous marriage cohorts, women with relatively higher levels of formal education are significantly more likely to divorce. Second, the marital-dissolution rates for less educated women are rising faster than the corresponding rates for women with more education. Third, this trend does not stop at the catch-up point and eventually leads to a reversal in the association between education and divorce from positive to negative. In short, such educational differentials in divorce vary dramatically across marriage cohorts. A pattern of educational crossover in divorce has been displayed during the rapid social change in Taiwan. Other than William Goode??s argument raised a half-century ago, the marriage model transformation from specialization toward symmetry in the context of gender egalitarianization has to be taken into consideration in order to obtain a full understanding of the phenomenon.     

Adverse Effects of Next Birth,Gender, and Family Composition on Child Survival in Rural Bangladesh

This paper reports on part of a study of “Reproductive facts, norms and attitudes among the various socio-economic groups of the white population in Johannesburg”, and deals with the incidence of fecundity and various degrees of sterility among a representative sample of white married couples under 50 years of age. The nature and incidence of fecundity is correlated with certain demographic and social variables such as age and duration of marriage, the use of contraception, fcetal deaths and childlessness, birth parity, income, occupation, home language, religion and occupational status.     

Family structure and socio-economic differentials in fertility

Abstract The long standing research on the relation of socio-economic status and fertility has recently given way to a focus on those factors which account for class differentials. Although class differences in fertility seem to be diminishing, the basic relationship remains inverse.(2) In an attempt to explain class differentials in fertility, researchers have begun to look at such variables as age at marriage(3), value orientations(4), and non-fiunilial activity.(5) Bumpass demonstrated that age at marriage is an interaction variable which greatly attenuates the relationship between social class and fertility. He found that the relationship was inverse among women marrying before age 19, but direct among women who were 23 years or older at first marriage. Clifford examined value orientations as an intervening variable in the socio-economic status-fertility relationship. Modern and traditional value orientations did aid in interpreting the relationship, but other factors were also operative. Kupinsky found that the non-familial activity of women decidedly influenced socio-economic differentials infertility. Thelabour force participation of women had a greater effect on reducing fertility among upper-status women than among those of lower status. This relationship was also influenced by the rural-urban background of the women.     

Income Rich and Asset Poor: A Multilevel Analysis of Racial and Ethnic Differences in Housing Values among Baby Boomers

Race and ethnicity, as well as cohort status are strong predictors of asset ownership including home ownership and housing values. Yet, seldom have the two concepts been linked. Additionally, potentially important determinants such as business income have often times been excluded from the analyses despite findings suggesting that business income may be an important indicator for racial and ethnic minorities who would otherwise be relegated to employment in low status jobs in the secondary labor market. Using the most recent data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Sample, this study examines: (1) How Asian, Black, Hispanic and white baby boomers compare in terms of housing values; and (2) What role business income and interest, dividends and rental income have on housing values for Asian, Black, Hispanic and white baby boomers. Significant racial and ethnic differences in housing values exist, and business income and interest, dividends and rental income are all significant indicators of housing values for all groups.