Community Context,Land Use,and First Birth |
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| Authors: | Dirgha J. Ghimire William G. Axinn |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute for Social Research
University of Michigan;2. Direct correspondence to Dirgha J. Ghimire at Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI 48106‐1248, email: . This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01‐HD32912) and a grant from the Fogarty International Center to the Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. We would like to thank Arland Thornton for his helpful comments on previous drafts of this article and his contributions to the research reported here. We would also like to thank N. E. Barr, Cathy Sun, and Paul Schulz and the research staff at the Institute for Social and Environmental Research in Nepal. |
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| Abstract: | This article examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to nonfamily services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing nonfamily activities and spreading new ideas that change expectations about family life. On the other hand, living in agricultural settings that provide opportunities for higher returns to child labor should speed first births. We use a longitudinal, multilevel, mixed‐method data from the Nepalese Himalayas to test these predictions. The empirical results reveal that nonfamily services during childhood and during early adulthood both have important independent influences on the odds of first birth. Also, as predicted, a high density of agricultural land use affects the odds of first births in the opposite direction, speeding first births. This clear pattern of contrasting effects provides important new evidence of the contextual dynamics that produce watershed changes in postmarital birth timing. |
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