Maternal and Child Health and Relevant Reform Development in China

正The State Council Information Office held a press conference at its press conference hall at 10 am on May 29,2014.Wang Guoqiang,Vice Minister of National Health and Family Planning Commission(NHFPC)and Director-General of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine;Zhang Shikun,Director-General of Department of Maternal and Child Health Service;and Mao Qun’an,spokesman and Director-General of Publicity Department,introduced the development     

Launch of “Maternal and Child Health in China” Campaign

正On the morning of June 28,2014,under the joint guidance of National Health and Family Planning Commission(NHFPC)and All-China Women's Federation,the launching ceremony of "Maternal and Child Health in China"campaign was held in Beijing.It was jointly organized by Maternal and Child Health Center of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,China Women Activity Center and China     

中国孩子质量与数量的替代关系现状分析——基于分位数回归方法

文章利用"中国健康与营养调查"2009年度的相关数据,采用分位数回归方法对我国孩子质量与数量间的替代关系进行分析研究,证实在生育政策与社会经济发展双重效力下的我国家庭孩子数量的减少,同时使孩子的质量得以提高。此外,孩子的性别、父母的学历、家庭所处地理位置、家庭长期福利水平以及家中孩子的性别组成也对孩子的质量有显著影响。     

Maternal Reading Skills and Child Mortality in Nigeria: A Reassessment of Why Education Matters

Mother’s formal schooling—even at the primary level—is associated with lower risk of child mortality, although the reasons why remain unclear. This study examines whether mother’s reading skills help to explain the association in Nigeria. Using data from the Demographic and Health Survey, the analysis demonstrates that women’s reading skills increase linearly with years of primary school; however, many women with several years of formal school are unable to read at all. The results further show that mother’s reading skills help to explain the relationship between mother’s formal schooling and child mortality, and that mother’s reading skills are highly associated with child mortality. The study highlights the need for more data on literacy and for more research on whether and how mother’s reading skills lower child mortality in other contexts.     

母亲劳动供给行为与中国农村儿童健康

本文使用"中国家庭营养与健康调查"(CHNS)数据,测度了母亲劳动供给行为对于中国农村儿童健康的影响,重点研究了全职和兼职母亲在儿童不同的年龄阶段进入劳动力市场对于儿童健康的影响。研究结果显示:母亲进入劳动力市场并不必然导致母亲照料儿童时间的减少,从事兼职工作的母亲由于工作的灵活性对于儿童的照料甚至比不参加工作的母亲更为充分;此外,在母亲劳动收入增加的正效应的作用下,母亲从事全职、兼职工作对于儿童健康有正的影响,但兼职工作的影响并不显著。在控制住儿童健康对于母亲劳动供给的反作用之后发现,母亲在儿童0～2岁阶段进入劳动力市场会对儿童健康产生负面影响,但影响在统计上并不显著。     

The One‐Child Policy in Shanghai: Acceptance and Internalization

China's one‐child policy is a major example of social engineering and the subject of human rights concerns. Given the significance of the policy, it is important to ascertain the attitudes of Chinese citizens. We conducted interviews in 2003 with residents of Shanghai who were of childbearing age either at the policy's inception or at the time of the interview. Our respondents, who were generally well educated, did not perceive the policy as extraordinary when it was introduced; resignation to one more intrusive government regulation was mixed with understanding and even approval of the policy. People talked about the political and social context, demographic concerns, family economic strategy, and the results of government‐engineered gender equality. Among the young interviewees, the context has changed from a population striving to get by under tight government control to a much richer population that is upwardly mobile and perceives their local government to be basically beneficial. The one‐child family is considered normal; few are still concerned with the policy per se, while others see it as unnecessary. The one‐child policy seems to reflect Shanghainese current preferences; its status as a legal requirement may be largely irrelevant.     

中国的独生子女与独生子女户

近几十年来 ,中国的“独生子女”与“独生子女户”成为与计划生育政策有关的一代特殊人口与一类特别家庭。对二者界定的不同标准造成了对其规模估计的分歧和深入研究的困难。根据 2 0 0 0年第五次人口普查数据 ,估算出我国现有独生子女数量约为 90 0 0万 ,其中城市独生子女的数量远远高于农村。独生子女之间彼此婚配 ,有可能会形成广受关注的“四二一”家庭。研究显示 ,大城市中独生子女间的婚配概率似乎更高一些 ,但对于全国并不具有普遍意义。由于严格意义的“四二一”家庭的出现取决于多种因素 ,其大规模出现的可能性并不大。对“独生子女”以及“独生子女户”的关注 ,主要来源于对“独生子女”养老能力的质疑和对“独生子女户”养老需求获取满足的前景的担忧。国家目前正在通过“农村部分计划生育家庭奖励扶助制度”等措施帮助“独生子女户”逐步消除后顾之忧     

对发达地区0-3岁儿童托育服务市场的调查与思考——以南京市为例

身处经济发达地区的南京市,在0-3岁儿童托育服务方面开始了系列探索,具有以市场为主,卫计主管、 联席审查、 市场运作、 以奖代补等特点.其中有一些成功的、 普通适用的经验,如:扶持社会力量办园,建立统筹协调机制和联席审查会议制度;设立专项基金,以奖代补并对资金使用跟踪监管;通过普惠性早期发展服务进行社区体验等.此外,南京及全国其他地方还有一些共同面临的问题与挑战,仍需国家在政策和财政方面给予更多的关注与投入.     

Economic Growth and Child Undernutrition in sub‐Saharan Africa

Despite recent improvements in economic performance, undernutrition rates in sub‐Saharan Africa appear to have improved much less and rather inconsistently across the continent. We examine to what extent there is an empirical linkage between income growth and reductions of child undernutrition in Africa. We pool all DHS surveys for African countries, control for other correlates of undernutrition, and add country‐level GDP per capita. We find that a 10 percent increase in GDP per capita is associated with 1.5 to 1.7 percent lower odds of being stunted, 2.8 to 3.0 percent lower odds of being underweight, and 3.5 to 4.0 percent lower odds of being wasted. Other drivers of undernutrition, including relative socioeconomic status and mother's education and her nutritional status, are quantitatively more important. This suggests that further increases in GDP will have only a modest impact on undernutrition and broader interventions are required to accelerate progress.     

Impediments to Mothers Leaving Welfare: The Role of Maternal and Child Disability

This research examines the relationship between disabilities in families and exits from welfare. Controlling for variations in characteristics known to be associated with welfare exits, this study investigates and documents that specific configurations of disabilities in families are also strongly associated with reduced rates of welfare exits. The impact of a child with a disability on welfare exits is similar to the mother's own disability, with an impact equivalent in magnitude to minority status. The presence of a child with a disability limits the chances that a mother with disability will leave welfare. Our findings add to the literature on welfare dependency and have implications for welfare reforms that emphasize work, self-sufficiency, and reducing poverty.     

The World's Changing Human Capital Stock: Multi‐State Population Projections by Educational Attainment

This research note presents the first global population projections by educational attainment using methods of multi‐state population projection. The educational composition of the population by age and sex and educational fertility differentials are estimated for 13 world regions, and alternative scenarios are presented to the year 2030. One of these scenarios assumes constant educational transition rates and the other assumes that all regions reach Northern American levels of enrollment rates by 2030. The strong momentum or, as the case may be, inertia in the transformation of the educational composition of a population, seen in the results, arises because education is mostly acquired at a young age. The sex bias in the educational composition, especially evident in some developing countries, is unlikely to disappear soon. China has made remarkable progress in improving educational enrollment and as a consequence by 2030 is expected to have more educated people of working age than Europe and Northern America together.     

老年人照料负担比:一个基于宏观视角的指数构建及对中国的分析

文章通过构建“老年人照料负担比”指数,从宏观角度分析中国老年人照料资源供求关系及其变化的趋势,并在国际比较的基础上探讨了中国老年人照料负担的特点.研究发现,中国目前的老年人照料负担仍处于较轻阶段,但分省来看,在照料负担的水平、城乡差异及差异格局上都呈现出显著的不同.从未来的变化趋势看,中国的老年人照料负担将持续提高,在2030年代进入重负阶段,2040年代进入超重负阶段,2080年可能成为全世界老年人照料负担最重的国家.在老年人照料人力资源供求关系日趋紧张的情况下,除了传统的非正式照料支持系统,还须建立正式的社会照料支持系统.因此,无论是社会民众还是政府都需有长远的目光,社会发展也需要更为适应老龄社会的长远制度安排.     

Child Mobility,Maternal Status,and Household Composition in Rural South Africa

This article examines the influence of maternal status, socioeconomic status of the household, and household composition on the mobility of children aged 0–14 in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, from 1999 to 2008. Using data from the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System, we found that children whose mothers were temporary migrants, living elsewhere, or dead had higher odds of moving than children whose mothers were coresident. Older children and children living in richer households faced lower odds of mobility. For children whose mothers were coresident, there was no effect of maternal substitutes on child mobility. However, among children whose mothers were temporary migrants or living elsewhere, the presence of prime-aged and elderly females lowered the odds of mobility. For maternal orphans, the presence of elderly women in the household lowered their odds of mobility. The results underscore the importance of examining the conditions under which children move in order to strengthen service delivery targeted at safeguarding children’s well-being.     

Making the Housing Unit Method Work: An Evaluation of 2010 Population Estimates in Florida

The housing unit (HU) method—in which population estimates are derived from estimates of occupied HUs—is the most commonly used method for making small-area population estimates in the United States. It is widely used because it is conceptually simple, can utilize a wide variety of data sources, can be applied at virtually any level of geography, and often produces reliable estimates. Yet the HU method is more nearly a general approach to population estimation than it is a specific methodology. In this paper, we describe and evaluate several data sources and estimation techniques that can be used in applying the HU method. Using a set of county and subcounty estimates produced by the Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR) at the University of Florida for April 1, 2010, we analyze errors by population size and growth rate, calculate errors for each of the three components of the HU method, and investigate the accuracy of estimates based on several different data sources and estimation techniques. We compare the accuracy of the 2010 estimates with previous BEBR estimates and estimates produced by the U.S. Census Bureau. We conclude that although some data sources and estimation techniques work better than others, the HU method can be tailored to produce reliable population estimates for a wide variety of geographic areas.     

Demographic Determinants of Infant and Early Child Mortality: A Comparative Analysis

In this paper we examine the relative importance of a number of demographic determinants of infant and early child mortality using information from 39 World Fertility Survey countries. We include sex of the child, age of the mother at the time of the birth, birth order, mother's educational level and a number of indicators of spacing of adjacent births among the correlates of chances of survival for children below the age of five years. Mortality of firstborn children and of those born to teenage mothers is shown to be higher than average; that of later children and those of older mothers was not much higher than average, once other factors are controlled. Effects of poor birth-spacing persist even after other factors have been controlled, and are similar where a sib was born during the two years preceding the birth of the child, regardless of the survival status of that sib; however, mortality was higher when that sib had died, due to increased familial risks of mortality. Rapid subsequent births also raise mortality for their earlier sibs. The findings are generally remarkably consistent in a wide range of countries and associated mortality conditions, although attention is drawn to a few interesting geographically clustered exceptions which deserve further investigation. The study leaves little room for doubt that poor child-spacing is clearly linked to decreased survival chances.     

The Effect of a First Born Child on Work and Childcare Time Allocation: Pre-post Analysis of Australian Couples

This paper uses Australian data from a national representative sample of Australian couples having their first child. Using data from before and after the birth of the child on a range of variables, including economic resources, gender attitudes, workplace flexibility, and availability of non-parental childcare, we first model the factors are associated with the decision to remain in work or not after the birth of the first child. The main finding here is that childbirth has a major impact on mothers’ paid work-time, whereas for fathers it has very little impact. Factors that are related to a mother’s decision to remain in work or not include the absolute (but not relative) pay of each parent, the father’s workplace flexibility, and paid parental leave available to the mother. We then model the factors that govern, for those mothers remaining in paid work, how much paid work they undertake. We find that changing employers is related to mothers’ work hours, as are absolute post-birth salaries, as is the relative pay of each partner. As with the decision to work or not, the availability of paid parental leave to the mother is significantly related to the amount of work-time for those mothers that do continue to work. Similarly, the use of external childcare is positively associated with maternal work hours. Finally, we model the factors that determine childcare time allocation and find that for neither parent do pre-birth economic resources significantly affect childcare time, once a decision about basic work patterns has been made. Gender role attitudes affect childcare time decisions, unlike work time decisions.     

Child Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis

Child marriage (before age 18) is a risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. Worldwide, Bangladesh has the highest prevalence of IPV and very early child marriage (before age 15). How the community prevalence of very early child marriage influences a woman’s risk of IPV is unknown. Using panel data (2013–2014) from 3,355 women first married 4–12 years prior in 77 Bangladeshi villages, we tested the protective effect of a woman’s later first marriage (at age 18 or older), the adverse effect of a higher village prevalence of very early child marriage, and whether any protective effect of a woman’s later first marriage was diminished or reversed in villages where very early child marriage was more prevalent. Almost one-half (44.5 %) of women reported incident physical IPV, and 78.9 % had married before age 18. The village-level incidence of physical IPV ranged from 11.4 % to 75.0 %; the mean age at first marriage ranged from 14.8 to 18.0 years. The mean village-level prevalence of very early child marriage ranged from 3.9 % to 51.9 %. In main-effects models, marrying at 18 or later protected against physical IPV, and more prevalent very early child marriage before age 15 was a risk factor. The interaction of individual later marriage and the village prevalence of very early child marriage was positive; thus, the likely protective effect of marrying later was negated in villages where very early child marriage was prevalent. Collectively reducing very early child marriage may be needed to protect women from IPV.