Health Selection,Migration, and HIV Infection in Malawi

Despite its importance in studies of migrant health, selectivity of migrants—also known as migration health selection—has seldom been examined in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This neglect is problematic because several features of the context in which migration occurs in SSA—very high levels of HIV, in particular—differ from contextual features in regions that have been studied more thoroughly. To address this important gap, we use longitudinal panel data from Malawi to examine whether migrants differ from nonmigrants in pre-migration health, assessed via SF-12 measures of mental and physical health. In addition to overall health selection, we focus on three more-specific factors that may affect the relationship between migration and health: (1) whether migration health selection differs by destination (rural-rural, rural-town, and rural-urban), (2) whether HIV infection moderates the relationship between migration and health, and (3) whether circular migrants differ in pre-migration health status. We find evidence of the healthy migrant phenomenon in Malawi, where physically healthier individuals are more likely to move. This relationship varies by migration destination, with healthier rural migrants moving to urban and other rural areas. We also find interactions between HIV-infected status and health: HIV-infected women moving to cities are physically healthier than their nonmigrant counterparts.     

Social networks and HIV/AIDS risk perceptions

Understanding the determinants of individuals' perceptions of their risk of becoming infected with HIV and their perceptions of acceptable strategies of prevention is an essential step toward curtailing the spread of this disease. We focus in this article on learning and decision-making about AIDS in the context of high uncertainty about the disease and appropriate behavioral responses. We argue that social interactions are important for both. Using longitudinal survey data from rural Kenya and Malawi, we test this hypothesis. We investigate whether social interactions--and especially the extent to which social network partners perceive themselves to be at risk--exert causal influences on respondents' risk perceptions and on one approach to prevention, spousal communication about the threat of AIDS to the couple and their children. The study explicitly allows for the possibility that important characteristics, such as unobserved preferences or community characteristics, determine not only the outcomes of interest but also the size and composition of networks. The most important empirical result is that social networks have significant and substantial effects on risk perceptions and the adoption of new behaviors even after we control for unobserved factors.     

On the role of families and kinship networks in pre-industrial agricultural societies: An analysis of the 1698 Slavonian census

This paper uses the 1698 Slavonian census to illuminate features of social organization and productive activity of an eastern European population under the New Feudalism of the 17th century. In particular we investigate the ability of community or kinship networks to provide substitutes for missing markets in securities and production factors. It is found that kinship networks increase the efficiency of agricultural production by facilitating the exchange of oxen. This confirms contemporary reports that draft animals were the critical constraint to the expansion of agricultural output. We also find that kinship networks fail to reduce the variability of output through mutual harvest insurance. Received: 03 November 1998/Accepted: 16 June 1999     

Troubling America's historical waters: Toward the transdisciplinary study of U.S. lynchings as an active present

This review considers a range of literatures that facilitate a critical discussion of lynching and legacies of lynching as present realities of the 21st Century in the United States of America. Although scholars in this field generally pride themselves on being “apolitical,” America's pioneering lynching scholars and anti-lynching advocates desired to eradicate lynching because it tangibly threatened the safety of Black, racially minoritized, and resource-deprived communities inside and outside of the U.S. South. However, scholars selectively engage this history despite its relevance to the production of their research. Likewise, routine displays of white supremacist violence throughout the COVID-19 pandemic—including the lynching of Ahmaud Arbery—are exacerbating the health and welfare of communities that are already experiencing other inequities. This review mobilizes the Transdisciplinary Frame to address these concerns. This frame leverages the interventionist and anti-racist praxes that created the field of lynching scholarship to advance an emancipatory sociology and scientific knowledge through the study of lynching's legacies. Furthermore, the Transdisciplinary Frame galvanizes scholars to use innovative methods to explore how racially minoritized individuals and resource-deprived communities in the 21st Century are grappling with safety concerns that may or may not be tied to legacies of U.S. lynching.     

Learning in social networks and contraceptive choice

A puzzling observation in the diffusion of modern fertility control is the persistent diversity in contraceptive practices across communities or social strata. I propose a model of “learning in social networks” to explain this diversity with the random dynamics of word-of-mouth communication. Women are uncertain about the merits of modern contraception and estimate the different qualities of available methods based on imprecise information from network partners. Their contraceptive choices are determined by this estimate and by private knowledge about one s personal characteristics. This process of social learning leads to path-dependent adoption of fertility control within, and diversity in contraceptive practices across villages or social strata.     

Behavior genetic modeling of human fertility: findings from a contemporary danish twin study

Behavior genetic designs and analysis can be used to address issues of central importance to demography. We use this methodology to document genetic influence on human fertility. Our data come from Danish twin pairs born from 1953 to 1959, measured on age at first attempt to get pregnant (FirstTry) and number of children (NumCh). Behavior genetic models were fitted using structural equation modeling and DF analysis. A consistent medium-level additive genetic influence was found for NumCh, equal across genders; a stronger genetic influence was identified for FirstTry, greater for females than for males. A bivariate analysis indicated significant shared genetic variance between NumCh and FirstTry.     

Is Fertility Behavior in Our Genes? Findings from a Danish Twin Study

This article investigates the fertility of Danish twins born during the periods 1870–1910 and 1953–64 in order to pursue two central questions for understanding human reproduction: Do genetic dispositions influence fertility and fertility-related behavior? Does the relevance of the “nature versus nurture” debate shift over time or with demographic regimes? The authors find that genetic influences on fertility exist, but that their relative magnitude and pattern are contingent on gender and on the socioeconomic environment experienced by cohorts. Among females born in 1880–90 and after 1955, about 30–50 percent of the variance in fertility is due to genetic influences; these influences are substantially smaller for earlier and for interim birth cohorts. Male fertility is generally subject to smaller genetic and larger shared-environment effects than female fertility. Because genetic effects are most prevalent in situations with deliberately controlled fertility and relatively egalitarian socioeconomic opportunities, the authors propose that the genetic dispositions affect primarily fertility behavior and motivations for having children. Analyses of fertility motivations, measured by age of first attempt to have a child, support this interpretation.