Age patterns of marriage

Abstract In different populations there is a common curve describing first-marriage frequency (first marriages per woman) as a function of age for each cohort. To fit the variety of patterns of human nuptiality it suffices to choose the age that serves as origin for a standard curve of first-marriage frequency, and to choose appropriate horizontal and vertical scales for the curve. The prevalence of a standard form for first-marriage frequency implies that the proportion ever-married in any cohort also rises along a standard curve, subject to choice of origin (the earliest age of first marriage), vertical scale (the proportion ever-marrying by the end of life), and horizontal scale (the pace at which the proportion ever-married increases with age). A mathematical expression (a double exponential) is found to fit the risk offirst marriage (among those who ever marry), and some of the implications of uniform features of nuptiality in different populations are discussed.     

Do Marriage and Cohabitation Provide Benefits to Health in Mid-Life? The Role of Childhood Selection Mechanisms and Partnership Characteristics Across Countries

Extensive research has found that marriage provides health benefits to individuals, particularly in the U.S. The rise of cohabitation, however, raises questions about whether simply being in an intimate co-residential partnership conveys the same health benefits as marriage. Here, we use OLS regression to compare differences between partnered and unpartnered, and cohabiting and married individuals with respect to self-rated health in mid-life, an understudied part of the lifecourse. We pay particular attention to selection mechanisms arising in childhood and characteristics of the partnership. We compare results in five countries with different social, economic, and policy contexts: the U.S. (NLSY), U.K. (UKHLS), Australia (HILDA), Germany (SOEP), and Norway (GGS). Results show that living with a partner is positively associated with self-rated health in mid-life in all countries, but that controlling for children, prior separation, and current socio-economic status eliminates differences in Germany and Norway. Significant differences between cohabitation and marriage are only evident in the U.S. and the U.K., but controlling for childhood background, union duration, and prior union dissolution eliminates partnership differentials. The findings suggest that cohabitation in the U.S. and U.K., both liberal welfare regimes, seems to be very different than in the other countries. The results challenge the assumption that only marriage is beneficial for health.     

Commitment beyond self and adolescence: The issue of happiness

Is there a link between adolescents' experience of joy and fulfillment and their increased openness and commitment to the world and other human beings? A series of comparative studies was conducted investigating different adolescent samples according to cultural background (American Christians, Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs), socio-economic status (low, high, disadvantaged), religiosity (observant, secular), and exceptionality (hearing impaired) and at different stages of prosocial involvement (non-involved, registered, and involved volunteers). Over and above group differences, the findings from all samples demonstrated that adolescents who realize positive experiences in greater depth and intensity, are also differentiated by a stronger desire to contribute to society and/or to be devoted to some aim beyond self. Implications for educators in fostering the social responsibility and self-fulfillment of young people from different backgrounds were discussed.     

Psychometric Properties of the Satisfaction with Life Scale among Turkish University Students,Correctional Officers,and Elderly Adults

This study aims to extensively examine the psychometric properties of adapted version of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) in different Turkish samples. In order to test the psychometric properties of the SWLS three separate and independent samples are utilized in this study, namely university students (n = 547), correctional officers (n = 166), and elderly adults (n = 123). Concerning the reliability of the scale, internal consistency and item-total correlation coefficients are found to be satisfactory for all three samples. As for the validity studies, concurrent validity of the scale is supported in all three samples by revealing the association of SWLS with conceptually related measures, which included depression, self-esteem, positive affect and negative affect, work stress, and monthly income measures. Discriminant validity is examined only in the sample of university students, and SWLS revealed a non-significant correlation with a conceptually unrelated construct (i.e., willingness to self-censor). Consistent with the original scale, a single-factor solution model reveals an adequate fit in all three different samples. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis with multi-group comparisons performed demonstrates that SWLS has the same theoretical structure for three different groups on the basis of a single-factor solution model. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

Voluntary Work in Europe: Comparative Analysis Among Countries and Welfare Systems

The main contribution of this paper to the research of volunteering participation is considering simultaneously different levels of data aggregation: individual, country and welfare regimen. This strategy allows us identifying individual factors (socio-demographic variables) and contextual data (government expenditures on social issues and GDP), as well as comparing different political backgrounds (welfare systems). Our results suggest that socio-demographic characteristics and contextual data are important predictors of volunteer rates. Macro-policies might be effective tools to promote national volunteering participation, because international differences on volunteer rates smooth with the introduction of national contextual data.     

Pensions as a portfolio problem: fixed contribution rates vs. fixed replacement rates reconsidered

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) pension schemes can contribute to better intergenerational risk-sharing and diversification. However, different variants of PAYG schemes entail different properties in these respects. In a stochastic 2-OLG model we compare PAYG schemes with fixed contribution rates and such with fixed replacement rates. The literature has shown that the former are preferable to the later from an ex ante perspective. We derive the opposite result for the ex post perspective. Here, schemes with fixed replacement rates are unambiguously preferable: they enhance intergenerational risk-sharing, lead to a higher savings and higher utility levels. We further show that, from an ex ante (veil-of-ignorance), perspective both schemes are non-comparable if the effect that fixed-replacement schemes serve as an insurance device for old-age income is properly accounted for. Received: 7 December 2000/Accepted: 17 May 2001     

Some comments on ‘the structure of subjective well-being in nine western societies’ by andrews and inglehart

This paper makes a number of critical comments on a recent article by Andrews and Inglehart (1979), where the similarity of subjective well-being data from nine different countries was investigated. It is first shown that different MDS representations can be constructed for the data which differ considerably among each other and with respect to the similarity hypothesis. The goodness of the MDS solutions is discussed by using finer indices than overall Stress. Then, the measures of configurational similarity are evaluated statistically. Finally, it is shown that other, equally valid measures lead to completely different conclusions. It is argued that this poses an insurmountable problem. A facet theoretical approach which looks for prototypical structures rather than a single similarity index avoids this dilemma.     

Measuring Progress: A Comparison of the GDP,HDI, GS and the RIE

The current paper constructs a progress measurement appropriate for measuring multiple and different dimensions of progress. The paper is not meant to be a detailed discussion of the framework but rather a demonstrated application of the measure. The constructed resource-infrastructure-environment progress measure employs a non-monetary evaluation adopting a weighting technique based on public opinion. The proposed index is assessed from a single summary standpoint. The aggregation method is evaluated via a z-score standardisation technique. The progress index is applied to three countries that are representative of different clusters. They are Australia (mid-industrialised nation), Mexico (emerging economy), and the US (highly industrialised nation). These selected countries provide an opportunity to highlight any divergences that may exist in their perceived economic strength. The results showed Australia as consistently having the highest levels of progress, closely followed by Mexico and then the US.     

Time Use on Trains: Media Use/Non-use and Complex Shifts in Activities

This study explores how travel time is used and how passengers conceptualise travel time in Danish intercity trains and intercity fast trains. The new contribution to the literature this study can offer is in the inclusion of all kinds of passengers in the different compartments to understand train travel as a dynamic act of moving with shifts in activities. A mixed-method approach is used with self-completed questionnaires, frequency observations, shadowing observations and interviews. The findings reveal that the train passengers’ acts on the move are framed by both macro- and microstructures. The passengers create a travel space in which they make dynamic shifts in different kinds of activities: media use, media non-use, social interactions and non-social interactions. Passengers expect the train operator to provide the travel space for different activities (including the possibility of mobile communication), and passengers can be frustrated and have anxiety if these needs are not fulfilled. The mobile phone is heavily used during train travel, and it appears that passengers are not typically annoyed by phone conversations during travel but may refer to previous experiences with annoyances.     

The Role of Domain Satisfaction in Explaining the Paradoxical Association Between Life Satisfaction and Age

Although aging is associated with declines in many life domains, overall life satisfaction does not appear to decline sharply with age. One explanation for this paradoxical finding is that several life domains improve with age such that increases in certain domains balance the decreases in others. Because different issues are problematic at different life stages, it is likely that specific domains display different life trajectories compared to overall life satisfaction. The observed pattern for overall life satisfaction is likely due to a bottom-up approach. Life and domain satisfaction data from 8?years of the British Household Panel Study were analyzed to evaluate this hypothesis. Results indicated that satisfaction with some life domains increased after middle age (e.g. social life), whereas satisfaction with other life domains decreased (e.g. health). Additionally, results illustrated that although domain satisfaction scores demonstrate distinct trajectories, the aggregate of these distinct domains resembled the overall life satisfaction trajectory. These findings have implications for top-down and bottom-up models of life satisfaction.     

Gay men and lesbians' experiences in and expectations for interactions with heterosexuals

We analyzed 97 gay men's and lesbians' experiences with and expectations for interactions with majority group members. Respondents described reactions to previous or imagined future interactions with an unfamiliar heterosexual person who had just become aware that the respondent was lesbian or gay. Results indicated that respondents are more proactive than reactive (in contrast to expectation states theories), that the contact hypothesis can be appropriately applied to this group, even though the formulation of the theory was based upon negative attitudes in the absence of extensive contact, and that they have different reactions for people of different prejudice levels, rather than being globally suspicious, as is predicted by many intergroup theories. Future research should direct more attention to the stigmatized group members' attitudes about and reactions toward the majority group.     

Poverty and Old Age in Scandinavia: A Problem of Gendered Injustice? Evidence from the 2010 GERDA Survey in Finland and Sweden

Material deprivation is represented in different forms and manifestations. Two individuals with the same deprivation score (i.e. number of deprivations), for instance, are likely to be unable to afford or access entirely or partially different sets of goods and services, while one individual may fail to purchase clothes and consumer durables and another one may lack access to healthcare and be deprived of adequate housing. As such, the number of possible patterns or combinations of multiple deprivation become increasingly complex for a higher number of indicators. Given this difficulty, there is interest in poverty research in understanding multiple deprivation, as this analysis might lead to the identification of meaningful population sub-groups that could be the subjects of specific policies. This article applies a factor mixture model (FMM) to a real dataset and discusses its conceptual and empirical advantages and disadvantages with respect to other methods that have been used in poverty research. The exercise suggests that FMM is based on more sensible assumptions (i.e. deprivation covary within each class), provides valuable information with which to understand multiple deprivation and is useful to understand severity of deprivation and the additive properties of deprivation indicators.     

Support for new mothers and fertility in the United Kingdom: Not all support is equal in the decision to have a second child

Low fertility across Europe highlights the need to understand reproductive decisions in high-income countries better. Availability of support may be one factor influencing reproductive decisions, though within high-income countries availability varies between environments, including socio-economic environments. We test whether receiving higher levels of support, from different sources (informal and formal) and of different types (practical and emotional), is positively correlated with second births in the United Kingdom (UK) Millennium Cohort Study, and whether these relationships differ by socio-economic position (SEP). Our hypothesis is only partially supported: receiving emotional support correlates with higher likelihood of second birth, but the opposite is true for practical support. Availability of different types of support varies across SEP, but relationships between support and fertility are similar, with one exception: kin-provided childcare increases the likelihood of birth only among lower-SEP women. Our results highlight that not all support is equal in the decision to have a second child.     

Facts and artifacts in the study of intra-uterine mortality: A reconsideration from pregnancy histories

Summary The analysis of intra-uterine mortality is made difficult by the interaction of many factors, some of them being pure artifacts resulting from the way in which the data are collected, or from the under-reporting of induced abortions. This paper deals with some 'real factors' of variation in the risk of spontaneous abortion (mother's age, pregnancy order, number of previous abortions), and with some of these 'artifacts' (inclusion of induced abortion, memory effect, differential continuation rates). Special attention is paid to the effect of heterogeneity of the risk of abortion. After a discussion of problems of observation, data from two different samples are analysed, first in a classic way: variation with age and pregnancy order, comparison between the rates of abortion for current and previous abortion. Next, detailed data on successive pregnancies are used to derive estimates of the distribution of risk between women. It is concluded that this distribution could and should be taken into account, and that its effects are different from those of age. The possibility of differential continuation rates by outcome of pregnancy is discussed briefly, in connection with previous points.     

Suicide and happiness: Seven tests of the connection

Indirectly, this paper examines the empirical connections between suicide and happiness by looking at the connection of each with seven standard demographic characteristics. They are sex, age, race, parental status, marital status, religiosity and employed status. These seven are chosen because a lot of data are available. We then examine the relationship of these same seven variables to suicide. Our findings indicate that marital status, religiosity and employment status have a (predicted) similar effect on suicide and happiness. Parenthood has an unclear relationship with suicide and happiness. Finally, sex, age and race have dissimilar effects on suicide and happiness. On the basis of this admittedly preliminary analysis, it would be impossible to conclude that happiness and suicide are closely (if inversely) related. First, there is the chance that suicides or happiness levels have been systematically misreported. Second, there may be a problem with our lumping together happiness and satisfaction. Third, there may be a problem with the seven particular independent variables we examined. Had we examined a different seven (or seventy) we might have drawn a different conclusion. In particular, we might have done better with comparative (or cognitive) variables derived from multiple discrepancies theory (MDT), than with demographic ones. In the end, the connection between happiness and suicide is far from certain. More research is needed.     

Using gross migration data compiled from the social security sample file

A study by Donald Pursell (1972), which examines migration data compiled from the one-percent sample file of the Social Security Administration, is discussed in this paper. An important feature of the data which is neglected by Pursell is pointed out, and the Pursell results are compared with findings obtained using somewhat different treatments of the social security data. The Pursell conclusion that out-migration is negatively related to employment growth is supported by the alternative tests.     

Polygyny and child survival in Nigeria: Age-dependent effects

Mortality risks under age five are estimated using data from the 1990 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey for children in monogamous and polygynous families. Integrating existing theories on polygyny’s relationship with infant and child mortality and some demographic concepts, the study shows that polygyny has different effects on infant and child mortality at different ages. The results indicate that polygyny does not have a significant effect on neonatal mortality (age less than one month). In contrast to the results of previous research, polygyny is significantly associated with lower child mortality during the post-neonatal period (1–11 months), but not during childhood (12–59 months). The study found socio-economic factors to be important confounders of the relationship between polygyny and mortality during the neonatal and post-neonatal periods. The protective effect of polygyny during the post-neonatal period suggests the need to further investigate circumstances that may favour post-neonatal child survival in polygynous families including availability of childcare.     

Son Preference in Indian Families: Absolute Versus Relative Wealth Effects

The desire for male children is prevalent in India, where son preference has been shown to affect fertility behavior and intrahousehold allocation of resources. Economic theory predicts less gender discrimination in wealthier households, but demographers and sociologists have argued that wealth can exacerbate bias in the Indian context. I argue that these apparently conflicting theories can be reconciled and simultaneously tested if one considers that they are based on two different notions of wealth: one related to resource constraints (absolute wealth), and the other to notions of local status (relative wealth). Using cross-sectional data from the 1998–1999 and 2005–2006 National Family and Health Surveys, I construct measures of absolute and relative wealth by using principal components analysis. A series of statistical models of son preference is estimated by using multilevel methods. Results consistently show that higher absolute wealth is strongly associated with lower son preference, and the effect is 20%–40% stronger when the household’s community-specific wealth score is included in the regression. Coefficients on relative wealth are positive and significant although lower in magnitude. Results are robust to using different samples, alternative groupings of households in local areas, different estimation methods, and alternative dependent variables.     

Quality of Life of Residents Living near Industrial Estates in Singapore

Quality of life (QOL) studies are increasinglygaining the attention of urban planners due toits usefulness in assessing and monitoringpublic policies. With this in mind, an attemptwas made in this study to assess the quality oflife of residents staying near industrialestates in Jurong, Singapore using 18subjective life indicators to measure theoverall life satisfaction.Based on a 5-point Likert scale, health (4.48),family life (4.37) and public safety (4.13)emerged as the more important aspects, whileself-development (3.90), religion (3.60) andpolitics (2.74) were named by the respondentsto be among the least important. On thesatisfaction level, public safety (3.92),family life (3.88), and public utilities (3.78)were deemed to be among the most satisfiedaspects, while consumer goods (2.92), politics(2.91) and environment (2.89) were consideredto be among the least satisfied aspects. Therelationship between the different demographicvariables with overall life satisfaction werealso determined and five variables, namely,marital status, education level, occupation,household income and household size were foundto contribute significantly to the overall lifesatisfaction scores.Overall, the residents in Jurong were found tobe generally satisfied with their life, scoringa mean satisfaction rating of 3.687. It ishoped that the data gathered from this studycan be used by planners in formulating andimplementing future policies.     

Minimising Misery: A New Strategy for Public Policies Instead of Maximising Happiness?

This paper raises the issue whether public policy should focus on minimizing unhappiness rather than maximizing happiness. Using a cross-sectional multi-country dataset with 57,000 observations from 29 European countries, we show that unhappiness varies a great deal more across social groups than (high levels of) happiness does. Our findings are robust to several alternative specifications, using both self-reported life satisfaction and self-reported happiness, and different cut-off points for defining unhappiness (dissatisfaction) and high levels of happiness (satisfaction). While misery appears to strongly relate to broad social issues (such as unemployment, poverty, social isolation), bliss might be more of a private matter, with individual strategies and attitudes, hidden from the eye of a policy-maker. The social cost of unhappiness may be also reflected in the immense cost of mental health problems. Preventing avoidable unhappiness, however, needs to be complemented with other strategies for promoting happiness, perhaps on a more decentralized level, given the different causes of bliss and that of misery.