World population in transition

The world's population growth rate peaked at slightly over 2%/year in the late 1960s and in 1986 is down to 1.7% and falling. Annual numbers added continue to rise because these rates apply to a very large base, 4.9 billion in 1986. According to UN medium variant projections, world population growth will peak at 89 million/year in the late 1990s and then taper off until world population stabilizes in the late decade of the 21st century at about 10.2 billion. Close to 95% of this growth is occurring in less developed countries (LDCs) of Africa, Asia (minus Japan), and Latin America. LDC fertility rates are declining, except in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America and South Asia, but most have far to go to reach the replacement level of 2.1 births/woman. Fertility is below replacement in virtually all more developed countries. For LDCs, large numbers will be added before stabilization even after attainment of replacement level fertility because of the demographic momentum built into their large and young population bases. This complicates efforts to bridge gaps between living standards in LDCs and industrialized countries. From a new debate about whether rapid population growth deters or stimulates economic growth, a more integrated view has emerged. This view recognizes the complementary relationship between efforts to slow population growth and other development efforts; e.g., to improve health and education, upgrade women's status, increase productivity. Most effective in the increased contraceptive prevalence and fertility declines seen in many LDCs has been the combination of organized programs to increase access to family planning information and supplies with socioeconomic development that enhances the desire for smaller families.     

Subjective variables in demography

The application of the subjective variable to research on attitudes toward fertility in Poland is considered. The variable concerns the determination of ideal family size and attitudes toward having more children. The author shows how an ex post facto variable was constructed, describing positive, negative, and neutral feelings toward fertility during the course of a study on attitudes toward procreation.     

Child health,breast-feeding,and survival in Malaysia: a random-effects logit approach

This study examines the possibility that estimation of the effect of breast-feeding on infant survival is affected by selection bias, in that children who are healthier at birth may be more likely to be breast-fed. Data are from the 1976 Malaysian Family Life Survey. "Ordinary logit models for breast-feeding and survival are estimated, and the results suggest that selection is indeed present. For example, children of higher birth weight appear to be more likely to be breast-fed and likely to survive. In addition, weight at birth and the duration of breast-feeding appear to be linked." Using birth weight as an indicator for the child's health, the authors conclude that "the direct influence of breast-feeding on survival remains of overwhelming importance even after corrections for selection bias are made."     

Utilizing a game for both needs assessment and learning in adolescent sexuality education

A fact-gathering, experimental game proved to be an effective instrument in the needs assessment phase of an adolescent sexuality educational program aimed at low-income females. The game ("Family Few"), which covered the topics of menstruation and reproduction, was played by 35 Black, Hispanic, and white females aged 13-16 years recruited from medical and psychiatric clinics in Miami, Florida. The goals of the game were to elicit terminology used by participants, identify and correct misconceptions and misinformation, and determine if learning could occur. Although 57% of participants reported prior exposure to formal sex education, misinformation about the need for activity curtailment during menstruation and the importance of early pregnancy detection was widespread. Group members believed they needed to restrict activities involving physical exercise, sexual relations, water, and cold during menses and were not likely to seek medical or family consultation regarding a missed period until the end of the 1st trimester of pregnancy. Also evident was a need for accurate information on the side effects, risk factors, benefits, and effectiveness of contraceptive methods. The group responses enabled the sex educators to prepare a culturally responsive, developmentally oriented curriculum for further work with disadvantaged female adolescents. The group process was ranked highly on the Likert Scale by these teenagers as an enjoyable, useful means of information dissemination and problem solving.     

Researching in the Victorian censuses: a note on a computerized,annotated bibliography of publications based substantially on the census enumerators' books

The authors describe a project, begun in 1981, to locate, list, and annotate all the published work based substantially on the census enumerators' books for nineteenth-century censuses for England and Wales. The results are currently available in a computerized file, enabling a variety of searches by topic, geographical area, and type of population. Information is provided on using the data and the computerized bibliography. The authors note that, subsequently, data for censuses of Scotland and Ireland have been added.     

Empirical findings on socioeconomic determinants of fertility differentials in Costa Rica

"This paper seeks to (1) identify socioeconomic variables that are expected to generate fertility differentials; (2) hypothesize the direction and magnitude of the effect of each variable by reference to a demand-for-children model; and (3) test empirically the model using evidence from Costa Rica. The estimates are obtained from a ten-percent systematic random sample of all Costa Rican individual-family households. There are 15,924 families in the sample...." The authors specifically seek "to capture the effects of changing relative prices and available income and time constraints on parental preferences for children. Least-squares estimates show statistically significant relationships between household fertility and opportunity cost of time, parental education, occurrence of an extended family, medical care, household sanitation, economic sector of employment, and household stock of nonhuman capital."     

Temporary workers in Canada: a multifaceted program

"This article highlights important developments in the character of temporary worker flows to Canada between 1973 and 1985 through the use of unpublished data and new measures for analyzing this data. The number of employment authorizations are converted to person years to indicate the overall labor market impact of temporary worker flows and this measure is employed in an analysis of unpublished data from Employment and Immigration Canada. The analysis reveals that a significant and growing proportion of employment authorizations are exempted from governmental procedures which link the admission of temporary workers to the Canadian labor market." Reasons for these exemptions and policy implications are discussed     

The labour market experiences of Canadian immigrants

The economic adaptation of immigrants to Canada is analyzed using government data on the labor force and landed immigrants. In particular, the labor force experience of a sample of immigrants in Canada is examined and compared with that of a Canadian cohort with regard to length of unemployment and income. "Differences in unemployment and insurable earnings are examined by age, sex, immigrant category..., world area of last permanent residence, official language abilities, education, and region of residence." (summary in FRE, SPA)