The association of television and radio with reproductive behavior

This note analyzes the association between media exposure and reproductive behavior in 48 developing countries. A summary of part of a more extensive Demographic and Health Surveys report, it shows strong connections between media exposure and the use of modern contraception, the number of children desired, and recent fertility. Television viewing is particularly important; it is assumed to expose viewers to aspects of modern life that compete with traditional attitudes toward the family and is associated with greater use of modern contraceptive methods, with a desire for fewer children, and with lower fertility. These relationships are particularly noteworthy because the data measure only the frequency of media exposure with no information about its content.     

Rural-urban residence and modernism: A study of Ankara Province,Turkey

Data from the Ankara Family Study, in which 1138 married women living in Ankara city and four selected villages in Ankara Province were interviewed in 1965–66, are used to study the impact of the amount and timing of urban residential experience on six dimensions of modernism in attitudes and behavior. Scores on the modernism indexes consistently are higher for the women with urban residential experience. The proportions of variance in the study population accounted for by the urbanism factor are: nearly three-fifths on the mass media index; nearly two-fifths on the nuclear family role structure index; three-tenths on the home production or consumption index; two-tenths on the religiosity and extra-local orientation indexes; and a seventh on the extended family ties index. The place of residence prior to marriage, the period when decisions about schooling are made and socialization into adult roles occurs, appears to be of special importance. Women who migrated from villages to the city at any stage of the life-cycle, however, report attitudes and behavior more modern than those of women with no urban residential experience (though less modern than those of women who have always lived in a city). Such micro-social analyses may help to illuminate the relation between urbanization and modernization in developing nations and to account for the coexistence of modern and traditional patterns in transitional societies.     

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.     

Educational Differences in Desired Family Size and Attitudes Toward Childbearing in Latina Women

Attitudes toward childbearing and desired family size influence women's reproductive choices. This may be especially true in the Latina culture, where motherhood and large families are valued highly. To determine whether these attitudes differ by educational status, Latina women in an OB/GYN clinic (N=351) completed a survey assessing attitudes toward childbearing and desired family size. Attitudes of women with and without a high school education were compared. Respondents without a high school education desired a mean of 3.1 children, while those with a high school education desired a mean of 2.7. Women without a high school education endorsed more attitudes favoring large families. Among women without a high school education, those who wished to have a son to carry on the family name tended to desire larger families. Results suggest that the desire for large families among Latina women with low education may result from traditional cultural attitudes.     

Family influences on family size preferences

Several studies have demonstrated important effects of parents’ childbearing behavior on their children’s childbearing preferences and behavior. The study described here advances our understanding of these family influences by expanding the theoretical model to include parental preferences, siblings’ behavior, and changes in children’s preferences through early adulthood. Using intergenerational panel data from mothers and their children, we test the effects of both mothers’ preferences for their own fertility and mothers’ preferences for their children’s fertility. Although both types of maternal preferences influence children’s childbearing preferences, mothers’ preferences for their children’s behavior have the stronger and more proximate effects. Mothers’ preferences continue to influence their children’s preferences through early adulthood; siblings’ fertility is an additional determinant of children’s family size preferences.     

An exploration of attitudes toward female genital cutting in Nigeria

Female genital cutting (FGC) continues to be widespread particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. We use data from the 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey to consider factors that influence attitudes toward this procedure held by Nigerian women aged 15–49. We test four models: model 1 explores whether attitudes are consistent with a view of FGC as a social convention associated with marriageability of women. Model 2 examines the impact of modernization factors such as education and urbanization. In model 3, the influence of media and community activities are considered. Model 4 includes all of the factors in the three previous models. We find strong support for considering FGC a social convention. Modernization has minimal impact on attitudes about FGC mainly through its influence on the social convention.

How peasants view couples with only one child]

A study on attitudes toward the one-child policy in Dayi county, Sichual, China, is presented. It is reported that, following the adoption of this policy in 1979, the rate of natural increase in this population of some 440,000 fell from a 1970 level of 33.3 per 1,000 to 1.62 in 1980. The study shows that although individual preferences were for more children, peasants realized that more people meant less land per head. The benefits of a small family were also perceived, and the importance of government support for the elderly in affecting attitudes toward having children is stressed.     

Unmet need for couples: An analytical framework and evaluation with DHS data

While estimates of unmet need continue to be an important measure of the extent of demand for contraception and family planning programs success in developing countries, there are various reservations about the validity of these estimates. For instance, the traditional formulation of the measurement has relied solely on information from women while inferences from the findings are often drawn for couples. As more survey data have become available for both men and women in a number of countries, there is increasing evidence suggesting that husbands' preferences are indeed important determinants of the reproductive behavior of couples. This paper developsan analytical framework for measuring unmet need for couples. The approach: (1) takes a fresh look at the classification of pregnant and amenorrheic women, and (2) incorporates the contraceptive use and fertility preferences of husband and wife in estimating the level of unmet need in six sub-Saharan African countries. Our findings shows that taking these factors into account results in a 50 to 66 percent reduction in the level of unmet need in these countries. The importance of husbands' variables in determining the level of unmet need is clearly evident when examined among fecund couples in which the wife is neither pregnant nor amenorrheic. The implications of these findings for family planning programs and research are discussed.     

The relationship of family planning to savings and consumption in Taiwan

This study relates fertility behavior to modern economic behavior, namely, saving and consumption of modern durables, for a sample of couples in Taiwan. It uses only couples who say they want no more children, and these couples are further classified by current use of contraception and by whether or not they already had excess fertility. Couples who are successful fertility planners, i.e., those who have no unwanted children and are current users of contraception, are distinctive with regard to modern economic behavior as compared to couples who do not use contraception or have excess fertility. Successful planners are more likely to save and to have more modern durables; these differentials remain when adjustments are made for the effects of family income, wife’s age, wife’s education, and duration of marriage. It seems that the kind of planning behavior which enables a couple to successfully plan their family size also enables them to manage their economic affairs so that they can save and enjoy more modern consumption goods.     

Has the Chinese family planning policy been successful in changing fertility preferences?

Has China’s strict one-child policy been successful in changing fertility preferences? Using linked data from surveys conducted in four counties of northern China in 1991 and 1994, we compare reproductive behavior against prior fertility preferences and show when and where women change from wanting to not wanting more children. The acceptance of policy-sanctioned family size follows a development gradient and reflects the degree of enforcement. High acceptance occurs in the most urban, industrialized county and in the county with the most rigid family planning policy. Acceptance is weaker among women living in the poorest county and in the county where enforcement is most lenient.     

The influence of parents’ marital dissolutions on children’s attitudes toward family formation

We investigate the influence of parents’ marital dissolutions on their children’s attitudes toward several dimensions of family formation. Hypotheses focus on the role of parents’ attitudes as a mechanism linking parents’ behavior to their children’s attitudes. We test these hypotheses using intergenerational panel data that include measures of parents’ attitudes taken directly from parents and measures of children’s attitudes taken directly from children. Results demonstrate strong effects of parental divorce, remarriage, and widowhood on children’s attitudes toward premarital sex, cohabitation, marriage. childbearing, and divorce. The results also show that parents’ own attitudes link their behavior to their children’s attitudes, although substantial effects of parental behavior remain after controlling for parents’ attitudes.     

Household extension of the elderly in China

Using data from a 1987 elderly survey, this study examines demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as expressed preferences for the patrilineal extended family as factors affecting coresidence among Chinese elderly. Consistent with expectations, three quarters of the elderly live with their children and the overwhelming majority of extended households are with a married son and grandchildren. This study contributes to the literature on Asian developing nations by illustrating the role of a government supported pension system in explaining prior perplexing results for urbanization, by documenting the role of preferences for the patrilineal extended family and by exploring earlier suggestions that factors vary by marital status. The greater vulnerability of widowed elderly is shown not only by higher rates of coresidence, but also by interactive effects with economic resources, age and number of sons.     

高职院校学生的生育道德观现状与实证研究

研究分别以分层丛集式问卷与子女价值量表对24岁以下的高职学生进行生育道德观的实证分析,旨在探讨生育道德观与未来希望生育子女数及生育挟择的整体关系。结果发现：高职学生以“权力成就”、“亲密情感”、“家庭愉悦”为最主要的认同层面;生育道德观因性剐、交友情况、父母教育程度等成长经验的不同而有所差异;生育道德观中“生育价值”、“生育代价”、“生育挟择”因素对未来希望生育子女数有一定程度的预测力。     

Family composition preferences in a developing culture: The case of Taiwan, 1973

Abstract As fertility comes increasingly under voluntary control in a developing society, it can be argued that individual desires or preferences about children will become more salient and more significant for eventual fertility. Hence, the study of preferences is increasingly important as contraceptive use is extended and results in decreasing the number of unwanted births.(1) Further changes in fertility then depend on changes in preferences. The assumption is that people will at least try to achieve the families they want, if the means to do so are available. The fact that contraception is used at all is some evidence of the soundness of this assumption, although it should be recognized that family size desires operate in a complex of preferences, under varying degrees of conflict and control. To expect a one-to-one relationship between attitudes or preferences and overt behaviour would be simplistic.     

An Empirical Approach to the Study of Well-being Among Rural Men and Women in Ghana

The paper indicates using community development and sustainable livelihood theories as lenses that well-being indicators vary among societies, especially in developing countries due cultural differences. The study which was carried in three rural communities in Ho Municipality in the Ghana was to show the extent to which men’s and women’s sense of well-being were determined by their local economic, religious, social, and education indicators; all of which were driven by their cultural values. Since men and women placed different values on religious, social, economic, education indicators, the paper discusses that their importance to overall well-being also differs between men and women.     

Conflicting Preferences: A Reason Fertility Tends to Be Too High or Too Low

Fertility has often seemed to be too high or too low, relative not only to social and economic goals, but also to reproductive preferences. In developing countries actual fertility has often been higher than desired family size, while in developed societies fertility tends to be below replacement level even though people generally say that they want at least two children. In explanations of fertility extremes, or of the discrepancies between desired and actual fertility, the effect of partners' holding different preferences has tended to be overlooked. Individual preferences expected to lead to replacement‐level reproduction may in combination generate substantially higher or lower fertility. In explaining such outcomes, a crucial question is what happens when spousal preferences diverge. Given that personal practices or social norms may systematically favor high or low preferences in the event of disagreement, chance alone will ensure that desired and actual fertility do not coincide.     

Indicators of modern health attitudes in an urban setting: An exploration of the attitude — Behavior relationship

This paper explores the components and determinants of health attitudes that have accompanied the process of modernization in Accra. Due to the numerous failures to predict behavior from unidimensional measures of attitudes, a multidimensional approach to health attitudes was used. Factor analysis of the components revealed that this multidimensional tripartite structure of health attitudes is theoretically meaningful. Both the simple correlational and multivariate analysis of responses form a sample interview survey of 1000 women show that social, structural and community factors are important determinants of modern health attitudes; and that the influence of modern health attitudes on utilization behavior is independent of the effects of education and general modernity. The implications of these for health care delivery are discussed.     

Social change,population policies,and fertility decline in Colombia and Venezuela

This paper takes a comparative case-study approach to examine the social and policy correlates of fertility decline. The analysis compares fertility behavior across a mature and young cohort of women in Colombia and Venezuela, two countries that experienced rapid demographic change under dissimilar socioeconomic and population policy conditions. Based on the distinction between birth-spacing and birth-stopping behavior the analysis tests several propositions derived from the adaptation and innovation explanations of fertility decline. Results show that fertility regulation at low parities was largely absent among mature women in both countries, representing an innovative behavior among younger women. The introduction of fertility control, however, was highly dependent on women's socioeconomic position, particularly their educational and occupational characteristics. The strong family planning programs in Colombia resulted in a more rapid extension of contraceptive use, particularly female sterilization, and stopping behavior after two children relative to Venezuela. Results highlight the diversity of conditions under which fertility can decline in developing countries and the importance of family planning and other policy initiatives to understanding the different pathways towards lower fertility.     

Perceptions of lesbian and gay (LG) individuals as desecrators of Christianity as predictors of anti-LG attitudes

This study applied religious coping theory to examine the relationship between participants' perceptions that lesbian and gay (LG) individuals desecrate Christian values (the stressor) and anti-LG attitudes (the response) and whether religious coping influences the relationship between these variables. Greater agreement with desecration messages was associated with higher levels of anti-LG attitudes. Positive religious coping was associated with lower levels of anti-LG attitudes while negative religious coping was associated with higher levels. Greater exposure to messages that LG individuals desecrate Christian values was associated with greater agreement with those messages. Longitudinal studies with more diverse samples are needed to examine causality and the generalizability of the findings. However, these results have implications for preventing and mitigating anti-LG attitudes.