Urbanization and the fertility transition in Ghana

This paper examines the way in which migration and urban residence operate to alter fertility outcomes. While urban-rural fertility differentials have long been established for most developing societies, the nature of these differences among migrants and between migrants and those of succeeding generations is not well understood. The evidence presented here suggests that rural-urban migration and urbanization may contribute positively to processes of fertility transition. Using data from the 1998 Kumasi Peri-Urban Survey, which included a 5-year retrospective monthly calendar of childbearing, we suggest that migrants adapt quickly to an urban environment. Our results also reveal generational differences in recent and cumulative fertility. While migrants exhibit higher cumulative fertility than urban residents of the second and third generation, their fertility is significantly lower than rural averages in Ghana. Children of migrants exhibit childbearing patterns quite similar to those in higher-order generations. Most noteworthy is the nature of the disparities in childbearing patterns between migrants and the succeeding generations. Migrant women have higher lifetime fertility than urban natives. Migrant women also exhibit higher fertility over the last 5 years than second generation or high-order urban natives. But these first generation women exhibit lower fertility (vs. urban natives) for the year immediately prior to the survey. These patterns lend support to an interpretation that combines rather than opposes theories of selectivity, disruption, adaptation and socialization. We conclude by discussing mechanisms that might explain these interrelated processes of fertility adjustment and suggest that policies discouraging rural-urban migration need to be revisited.     

Welfare states and social mobility: How educational and social policy may affect cross-national differences in the association between occupational origins and destinations

Cross-national differences in the association between origins and destinations correspond to differences in both welfare regime type and access to post-secondary education. Socialist and social democratic welfare regimes foster a weaker origin–destination association than liberal, corporatist, or mixed regimes do. Nations with better-educated labor forces tend to also be the nations where the association between origins and destinations is weakest. Furthermore, the social and educational policy interact so that the tendency for educational access to lower the origin–destination association is most pronounced in the liberal welfare setting where the association would otherwise be greatest. Greater access is not necessarily associated with greater equality of opportunity, and we find very weak evidence that equality of educational opportunity itself is a direct influence on equality of occupational opportunity (even though nations that have a strong origin–education association also have a strong origin–destination association).     

Environmental Hazards,Migration, and Race

This study contributes to our understanding of the association between internal migration patterns and environmentally hazardous facilities, with a focus upon race-specific outmigration at the county-level, nationwide. Among research suggesting inequalities with regard to the social distribution of environmental risk, selective migration is often implied to be a key dynamic leading to differential exposure to proximate environmental hazards. Nonetheless, the models presented here provide no evidence of differential migratory response by race to environmentally hazardous facilities, net of a wide array of socioeconomic controls for labor force opportunity, climate, and demographic structure. Future research should consider these associations at more precise geographies and/or at the individual level.     

Global QUALITY OF LIFE (QOL), health and ability are primarily determined by our consciousness. Research findings from Denmark 1991–2004

Social Indicators Research - Objective: To explain the global quality of life (QOL) from 2000 indicators representing all aspects of life. Design and setting: Two cross sectional population...     

Changes in psychosocial well-being during stages of gay identity development

The current study evaluated the stage theory of Homosexual Identity Formation (HIF) developed by Cass (1979), in terms of the relationship between stage of gay identity development and psychosocial well-being. Four hundred twenty-five males (12 to 64 years, M = 29.2) reporting sexual attraction to other men provided demographic information and completed psychosocial measures: the Happiness-Sadness Scale (McGreal & Joseph, 1993), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985), the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, Peplau & Ferguson, 1978), the Index of Self-Esteem (Hudson, 1982), and the Gay Identity Questionnaire (Brady & Busse, 1994). Correlation analysis and ANCOVAs controlling for age and nationality demonstrated that the 6 sequential stages of HIF were associated with a U-shaped function for the psychosocial variables. Well-being was high during the initial Confusion and Comparison stages of HIF, was reduced during the middle Tolerance and Acceptance stages, and was again high in the later Pride and Synthesis stages. Each of the psychosocial variables was significantly different according to stage of development (p <.001). Qualitative analysis of subjects' comments also revealed support for the U-shaped pattern.     

SHORT REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Iris Chi, Neena L. Chappell, and James Lubben (eds.), Elderly Chinese in Pacific Rim Countries: Social Support and Integration Wayne A. Cornelius, Thomas J. Espenshade, and Idean Salehyan (eds.), The International Migration of the Highly Skilled: Demand, Supply, and Development Consequences in Sending and Receiving Countries Bimal Ghosh (ed.), Managing Migration: Time for a New International Regime? Institute of Medicine, Forum on Emerging Infections, Emerging Infectious Diseases from the Global to the Local Perspective: Workshop Summary Hans‐Peter Kohler, Fertility and Social Interaction: An Economic Perspective David Kyle and Key Koslowski (eds.), Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives Brian C. O'Neill, F. Landis Mackellar, and Wolfgang Lutz, Population and Climate Change Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes (eds.), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences Thomas Spira, Nationalism and Ethnicity Terminologies: An Encyclopedic Dictionary and Research Guide, vol. 1 Li Zhang, Strangers in the City: Reconfigurations of Space, Power, and Social Networks within China's Floating Population     

The Time-Pressure Illusion: Discretionary Time vs. Free Time

People’s welfare is a function of both time and money. People can – and, it is said, increasingly do – suffer time-poverty as well as money-poverty. It is undeniably true that people feel increasingly time pressured, particularly in dual-earner households. But much of the time devoted to paid and unpaid tasks is over and above that which is strictly necessary. In that sense, much of the time pressure that people feel is discretionary and of their own making. Using data from the 1992 Australian Time Use Survey, this paper demonstrates that the magnitude of this ‘time-pressure illusion’ varies across population groups, being least among lone parents and greatest among the childless and two-earner couples.     

Census adjustment and the distribution of federal spending

In 1989, programs that use population counts to determine the distribution of their funds transferred $236 per capita to state and local governments. If the 1990 census were adjusted to reflect undercounting, about 40% of state and local governments would receive increased grants averaging $56 per miscounted person; other jurisdictions would lose an almost equal amount of grant money. The surprisingly small reallocations arise because 1) total funds allocated by population are essentially fixed; 2) allocations depend on other factors in addition to population; and 3) programs vary as to whether they allocate funds in direct or inverse proportion to population.     

Dynamics ofSitotroga cerealella (olivier) (lepidoptera: gelechiidae) andSitophilus zeamais motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) populations in a small bulk of stored corn

Summary The dynamics of Angoumois grain moth,Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier), and maize weevil,Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky, populations breeding in a small bulk (initially 5.36 t) of shelled corn were studied over an 8-year period by monthly sampling. The weevil population showed wide fluctuations in density superimposed on a general decline with time. The moth population showed no upward or downward trend for the first 60 months, although it fluctuated widely. Following a decline that occurred between 56 and 60 months, the moth population fluctuated within a much narrower range, and there was a general decrease in density with time. The decline of the weevil population paralleled deterioration of the corn as did that of the moth population after ca 60 months, and the decline of both species probably resulted from increasing scarcity of suitable breeding sites. Both populations exhibited seasonal variation in density with minima in late summer and early fall, following periods of adversely high temperatures in the storage shed. The populations increased during the fall, leveled off or declined slightly during the winter months, and then increased to maximum levels in late spring or early summer. It thus appears that high temperatures had a greater adverse effect on the populations than low temperatures. The grain moth and the maize weevil both tended to be randomly dispersed at low population levels and moderately aggregated at intermediate and high levels, although the degree of aggregation was not correlated with population density when low population levels were considered separately, and the maize weevil showed a greater tendency for aggregation than did the grain moth. Analysis of individual samples at fixed points in time showed a conspicuous bias for negative correlation between numbers of the two species within sampling quadrats, suggesting a tendency for the two species to segregate within the grain mass. This process could have resulted from behavioral differences or from the destruction of one species by the other. Competitive displacement of the grain moth by the maize weevil has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments but has rarely been observed under natural conditions, and in our study the two species coexisted for 8 years in a relatively small grain bulk.