Women’s fertility, religion and education in a low-fertility population: Evidence from South Australia

The old issue of religion and fertility is examined in relation to women s level of education. In-depth interviews exploring influences on parity for Adelaide parents in 2003–04 suggest that more frequent attendance at religious services in childhood, and affiliation with particular religious denominations, are related to both higher preferred and higher achieved parity, even for women with university education. For some university-educated women, their religious upbringing appears to play a part in negating the traditional relationship between higher education and lower fertility. Quantitative data on religion, fertility and educational level from the 1996 Census for women aged 40–44 in South Australia show that women with No Religion had lower fertility than those With a religion, while university-educated women in New Protestan-New Christian groups had higher fertility than university-educated women in other denominations. The findings provide an understanding of some social conditions that support higher fertility in a low-fertility population. Future fertility research in developed countries should include consideration of the influence of religious affiliation and religiosity at disaggregated levels of inquiry.     

Peers and Fertility Preferences: An Empirical Investigation of the Role of Neighbours,Religion and Education

Individual fertility preference is influenced by observed social norms. The present paper investigates the effect of the observed fertility of peers on a woman’s fertility preference. We explore the role of two peer groups: neighbourhood peers and religious peers. Data from the National Family Health Surveys (1992–1993, 1998–1999 and 2005–2006) in India is employed for empirical estimations using a multinomial logit model. We find that both neighbourhood and religious peers have a significant impact on individual fertility preferences, but their relative importance changes with family size. An increase in peer fertility increases the probability of preferring more children. We further examine the roles of education and wealth as transmission channels between the fertility norms of peers to the fertility preferences of the women and find that education plays an important role in moderating peer influences. These findings can serve as vital inputs in formulating family planning and gender policies.     

Attitudes toward abortion among catholic Mexican-American women: The effects of religiosity and education

Contrary to observed trends in religious fertility and contraceptive use differentials, Catholic/non-Catholic differentials in attitudes toward abortion have not been converging. This study suggests that this may be due to an interaction between religiosity and education. In a sample of Catholic Mexican-American women in Los Angeles County, the authors found that among respondents brought up in Mexico, education had a liberalizing effect on their attitudes. With the exception of the most devout, the same trend was observed among U.S.-reared respondents. Among the most religious group, however, education had the opposite effect, suggesting that convergence will be delayed.     

Donating Time or Money? The Effects of Religiosity and Social Capital on Civic Engagement in Qatar

Few studies have examined the role of religiosity and social capital on civic engagement in the context of a Muslim country. In this paper, we explore the impact of religiosity and social capital on charitable donations and volunteerism in Qatar. Drawing on a nationally representative survey from Qatar, we consider various attitudinal and behavioral measures for capturing religiosity and social capital. The results indicate that, even after controlling for a wide range of demographic variables, behavioral measures have a stronger effect than attitudes. Individuals who regularly perform daily prayers are more likely to donate than those individuals who simply describe themselves as religious. Similarly, individuals who are more active in their neighborhood engagement are more likely to volunteer than those who merely report high levels of social trust. These results suggest that when it comes to the relationship between religiosity, social capital and civic engagement, individual behavior is much more predictive than attitudes alone. We also find that even in the case of Qatar, where citizen wealth has rapidly increased in the last few decades, there is little evidence of substitution effects: citizens do not appear to trade-off or substitute between time and money. Instead, more religious and active citizens are likely to do both.     

Aging,Proximity to Death,and Religiosity

Considerable evidence has documented that the elderly are more religious and that religiosity is associated with better health and lower mortality. Yet, little is known about the reverse role of life expectancy or proximity to death, as opposed to age, for religiosity. This paper provides evidence for the distinct role of expected remaining life years for the importance of religion in individuals’ lives. We combine individual survey response data for more than 300,000 individuals from 95 countries over the period 1994–2014 with information from period life tables. Contrary to wide-held beliefs, religiosity decreases with greater expected proximity to death. The findings have important implications regarding the consequences of population aging for religiosity and associated outcomes.     

Religious domains and general well-being

With only a few notable exceptions, studies on quality of life or general well-being have failed to deal with religiosity in general, and the development of more refined measures of religious meaning and belonging in particular. Data measuring subjective perceptions of well-being for various domains of life, including neighborhood, employment, work at home, education, friends, household members, marital status, standard of living, health and religion were used to form a number of domain scales. Relationships between the multidimensional concepts of well-being and religiosity are explored and the importance of religiosity in defining well-being is tested. Religious satisfaction was found to be important for general life satisfaction and existential well-being. Among the eight indicators and scales of religiosity, various combinations of religious satisfaction, frequency of prayer, prayer experience, and relationship with God, were important predictors of general life satisfaction, existential well-being, and overall happiness. Under no circumstance did any measure of religosity contribute to negative affect.     

A Comparison of Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Among Students of Helping Professions in Crete,Greece: The Cases of Social Work,Psychology, Medicine,and Nursing

This study investigated the attitudes toward lesbians and gay men among social work, psychology, medical, and nursing students in Crete, Greece, using Herek’s ATLG scale. No respondents held completely heterosexist attitudes; only 1.6% held completely non-heterosexist attitudes. The 44.96 total ATLG score indicates a slightly positive attitude toward lesbians and gay men. Psychology students scored higher than all others on positive attitudes, followed by social work students, medical students, and nursing students. Gender, having lesbian or gay acquaintances or friends, and religiosity were significant factors influencing students’ attitudes, while no impact on attitudes due to the effects of higher education could be discerned. Implications for curriculum design and teaching methods are discussed.     

Challenging the Black Church Narrative: Race,Class, and Homosexual Attitudes

In recent years, scholars have pointed to the Black church as the driving force behind Blacks’ more conservative lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) attitudes. Although evidence suggests a robust association between religiosity and LGBT attitudes, contemporary scholarship has not examined the role of class or the extent to which religiosity actually explains these trends. Using the 2004–2014 waves of the General Social Survey, we find that class moderates in the effect of race on negative LGBT attitudes, resulting in a noticeably larger gap between middle-class Blacks and Whites than in the top or the bottom of the class distribution. Although religiosity and moralization explain a portion of racial differences in homosexual attitudes across class groups, we find that neither fully accounts for the more conservative attitudes of the Black middle class. We conclude by discussing the shortcomings of these narratives for understanding Blacks’ more conservative LGBT attitudes.     

Women's Experiences of Work in the Iranian Broadcast Media (IRIB): Motivations,challenges, and achievements

This paper examines Muslim women's work experiences in the Iranian broadcast media (IRIB) through a study of their motivations, challenges, and achievements. These women have resisted family and social constraints that prevent them from working in broadcast media; (re)constructed a new identity for themselves as Muslim women active in modern media; reformed some restrictions and pushed back conservative norms and regulations in the organization; and improved the representation of women in the broadcast media. Before the 1979 revolution, many religious communities and families were deeply skeptical about film and broadcast industries. It was deemed that such media were instruments of decadence and “Westernization.” For many practicing Muslim women, working in the broadcast media at that time was not an option. Since the 1979 revolution, and the assumption that the media has become “Islamic,” many religious women have begun working in broadcast media. Using data from thirty semi-structured interviews with these women, it can be seen that Iranian Muslim women have negotiated a better space in IRIB, although they are still far from equal with men. These women have constructed new, complex identities that go beyond simplistic dichotomies such as traditional/modern, submissive/liberated, and religious/secular.     

Parents’ Religious Involvement,Family Socialization and Development of Their Children in a Chinese Sample of Hong Kong

The present study investigates the effects of parents’ religious involvement on their psychological health, family functioning and development of their children from a Chinese sample of parent–child pairs in Hong Kong. Results support the beneficial effects of religious involvement on effective parenting and favorable outcomes of their children, which have been well reported in western studies. Besides, this investigation finds that (1) parental psychological health is a mediator between their religious involvement and positive family processes; (2) family processes is an important family socialization factor with spill-over effects into the function of parenting; (3) different family socialization factors have different effects on child outcomes; (4) parental positive religious coping is a function of their intrinsic religiosity; and (5) both parental religious coping and their intrinsic religiosity have a protective effect on parental psychological difficulties, with the former having robust direct effects on positive family processes and effective parenting, and (6) both intrinsic religiosity and positive religious coping in parents show significant total indirect effects on respective child outcomes through parental psychological and family socialization factors. Implications and directions for further study are also discussed.     

Welfare Participation and Time Use in China

Using the newly available China Family Panel Studies 2010 survey data and a propensity score matching method, this study examines the possible influence of participation in China’s primary welfare program, Dibao, on household head’s time use pattern in both urban and rural areas. We find that Dibao lowered recipients’ time spent on various leisure and social activities and increased their time spent on unspecified activities or being idle for both urban and rural residents. Urban Dibao recipients also tended to spend less time on education activities, while rural Dibao recipients spent less time on work activities but more time on personal care and household activities. These findings provide pioneering evidence on the possible link between welfare participation and time use patterns in the global welfare literature. As Dibao continues to expand, the empirical evidence from this article suggests that Dibao might have some unintended adverse effects on recipients, including less time spent on leisure and social activities, reduced time on work and education activities, and more time on being idle. Future reforms of Dibao and its supplementary policies and programs need to consider how best to promote both the economic and holistic well-being of the participants.

     

Cultural and Socioeconomic Influences on Divorce During Modernization: Southeast Asia, 1940s to 1960s

The conventional model of a rising divorce rate during the process of modernization is a staple element of the sociological theory of the family. This generalization is challenged, however, by traditional high‐divorce societies, primarily in Islamic Southeast Asia, which have experienced a decline in divorce with modernization. In this study, based on micro‐level survey data, the authors explore the social roots of marital disruption in Indonesia and Malaysia and in another Southeast Asian society, Thailand, which has not been identified as a high‐divorce society. Comparable survey data from the 1970s (from the World Fertility Survey) allow for an in‐depth analysis of traditional patterns of divorce before the rapid modernization of recent decades. Two major findings emerge from the multivariate analysis. First, there is a common pattern across all three societies of higher levels of divorce among “traditional” women—those who live in rural areas, marry at young ages, and have lower levels of education. Second, the authors find significant sociocultural (ethnic, regional, religious) differentials in divorce within each country that cannot be explained by demographic and socioeconomic composition. They present an interpretation of how moderately high levels of divorce were accommodated in traditional Southeast Asian societies.     

The abortion decision: A qualitative choice approach

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey, Youth Cohort, logistic regression models are estimated to show the impact of various sociodemographic and economic factors on the abortion decision for 1867 pregnancies occurring between 1983 and 1985 in the data set. The results suggest a profile of a woman choosing the abortion decision as being White, unmarried, residing in the Northeast or West, relatively well-educated, and either in-school or working. Additionally, the female is likely to have a relatively high person income and, if present, a relatively low spousal income. Being Baptist or Catholic appears to have no significant influence on the abortion decision, and the same is true for Baptists and Catholics who are religious (attend church more than two times per month). The degree of religiosity is a predictor of abortion outcome, irrespective of religious affiliation. Finally, it is found that for low income women, access to Medicaid funding does significantly increase the probability of choosing the abortion option.     

Religiosity as a Protective Factor against Heavy Episodic Drinking (HED) in Heterosexual,Bisexual, Gay,and Lesbian Young Adults

Although religiosity has been shown to be associated with positive outcomes in studies of general population samples, few studies have considered the potential differential effect of religiosity on those who are consolidating gay, lesbian, or bisexual (GLB) identities. Logistic regression analyses using a sample of 13,038 emerging adults from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) revealed main effects for religiosity and a significant religiosity × sexual identity interaction in women. Specifically, religiosity was protective against alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking (HED) in heterosexual women, but not lesbian women. In bisexual women, higher religiosity increased the odds of alcohol use and HED. Among men, religiosity was protective, with no differential effects based on sexual identity. Prevention efforts should consider that individual religiosity may be a risk, rather than protective factor for some young adults.     

Social,behavioral, and biological factors,and sex differences in mortality

Few studies have examined whether sex differences in mortality are associated with different distributions of risk factors or result from the unique relationships between risk factors and mortality for men and women. We extend previous research by systematically testing a variety of factors, including health behaviors, social ties, socioeconomic status, and biological indicators of health. We employ the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey III Linked Mortality File and use Cox proportional hazards models to examine sex differences in adult mortality in the United States. Our findings document that social and behavioral characteristics are key factors related to the sex gap in mortality. Once we control for women’s lower levels of marriage, poverty, and exercise, the sex gap in mortality widens; and once we control for women’s greater propensity to visit with friends and relatives, attend religious services, and abstain from smoking, the sex gap in mortality narrows. Biological factors—including indicators of inflammation and cardiovascular risk—also inform sex differences in mortality. Nevertheless, persistent sex differences in mortality remain: compared with women, men have 30% to 83% higher risks of death over the follow-up period, depending on the covariates included in the model. Although the prevalence ofriskfactors differs by sex, the impact of those riskfactors on mortality is similar for men and women.     

Radical Islamic Militancy and Acts of Terrorism: A Quality-of-Life Analysis

Horrific acts of terrorism have emerged as defining features of Islamic–Western relations throughout much of this still young century. Arising from decades, indeed centuries, of mutual distrust contemporary patterns of radicalized Islamic terrorism toward the West are rooted in their shared histories, traditions, values, norms and, for some, deeply held religious convictions. They also are the product of centuries-long colonization of large regions of the “Islamic world” by Western powers or their proxies. This paper presents an innovative approach for advancing the quality of life of Islamic and Western societies through a fuller understanding of the origins and dynamics of Islamic-inspired terrorist acts against the West. The paper examines the relationship that exists between acts of terrorism associated with a select group of 27 member states of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and: (1) their years of independence since colonization; (2) their current types of polity; (3) the extent of their civil liberties and political freedoms; (4) country levels of perceived public corruption; and (5) the overall level of each country’s broad-based social development (or quality of life). The paper concludes with an “evolving agenda for action” that seeks to advance the quality of life of all people living in Islamic and Western nations.     

Divorce,living arrangements,and material well-being during the transition to adulthood in rural Malawi

In this paper, we use longitudinal data to investigate how parental death and divorce influence young women’s own experience of divorce in Malawi, a setting where women marry relatively early and unions are fragile. We find that maternal death and parental divorce are positively associated with divorce for young women but, after controlling for socio-demographic and marital characteristics, only the association with maternal death remains statistically significant. Maternal and paternal death are both strongly associated with women’s post-divorce living arrangements, which in turn affects their material well-being. This finding suggests that divorcing at a young age shapes the subsequent life chances of women; although some women return to their parental home and may have the opportunity to reset the transition to adulthood, other women begin their 20s as head of their own household and with considerable material disadvantage.     

流动人口户籍迁移意愿的分层模型研究

将2016年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据和城市特征数据进行匹配,使用非线性分层模型分析了流动人口户籍迁移意愿的影响因素。结果表明,流动人口的个人基本特征、经济状况、流动特征对户籍迁移意愿存在单独的影响,流入城市特征不存在对流动人口户籍迁移意愿的直接影响,但通过流动人口个人层面特征跨层交互作用于流动人口的户籍迁移意愿。有子女随迁和在流入地居留时间越长的流动人口户籍迁移意愿越强,流入地的教育公共服务质量越好越会强化这种倾向;已在流入地购房、受教育程度越高、女性流动人口的户籍迁移意愿更高,流入地的人口规模越大越会加强这种作用。     

Educational Pairings,Motherhood, and Women’s Relative Earnings in Europe

As a consequence of the reversal of the gender gap in education, the female partner in a couple now typically has as much as or more education compared with the male partner in most Western countries. This study addresses the implications for the earnings of women relative to their male partners in 16 European countries. Using the 2007 and 2011 rounds of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (N = 58,292), we investigate the extent to which international differences in women’s relative earnings can be explained by educational pairings and their interaction with the motherhood penalty on women’s earnings, by international differences in male unemployment, or by cultural gender norms. We find that the newly emerged pattern of hypogamy is associated with higher relative earnings for women in all countries and that the motherhood penalty on relative earnings is considerably lower in hypogamous couples, but neither of these findings can explain away international country differences. Similarly, male unemployment is associated with higher relative earnings for women but cannot explain away the country differences. Against expectations, we find that the hypogamy bonus on women’s relative earnings, if anything, tends to be stronger rather than weaker in countries that exhibit more conservative gender norms.