The Experts below are selected from a list of 207 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform

William G. Axinn - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Mass education and Fertility transition
    American Sociological Review, 2020
    Co-Authors: William G. Axinn, Jennifer S Barber
    Abstract:

    The relationship between the spread of mass education and Fertility-limiting behavior is examined. Existing theories relating education to Fertility Limitation are integrated, including those relating the presence of educational opportunity to Fertility decline, theories relating women's education to their Fertility behavior, and theories relating children's education to the Fertility behavior of their parents. Using survey data from a sample of 5,271 residents of 171 neighborhoods in rural Nepal, the individual-level mechanisms linking community-level changes in educational opportunity to Fertility behavior are tested. A woman's proximity to a school during childhood dramatically increases permanent contraceptive use in adulthood. This finding is largely independent of whether the woman subsequently attended school, whether her husband attended school, whether she lived near a school in adulthood, and whether she sent her children to school. Strong Fertility Limitation effects were also found for husband's education and for currently living near a school. These effects were independent of other education-related measures. The largest education-related effect is for sending children to school

  • rural income generating programs and Fertility Limitation evidence from a microdemographic study in nepal
    Rural Sociology, 2010
    Co-Authors: William G. Axinn
    Abstract:

    The Small Farmers Development Project (SFDP) in Nepal provided microdemographic community data that linked rural income generating programs with Fertility Limitation. The goal of SFDP was to increase the income of small farmers and to improve living conditions through group acitivites and use of collateral-free loans. In 1986 in Nepal there were 142 such projects in 41 of the 75 administrative districts. Many SFDPs include a population education program to encourage family planning (FP). Group interactions and the close proximity to one another in the village are an impetus to use FP. Group organizers also provide a group forum for discussing FP issues. This study used data from a cluster of 5 villages and a single ethnic group the Tamang. The survey included all 1036 community members aged 12 years and older living in 307 households. 433 were ever married. The analysis pertained to ever married women aged 25-44 years. Logistic regressions in estimating multivariate models of contraceptive use were used. Controls were included for the number of years a woman lived in a married state and age at first marriage. The gender of the interviewer was included as a dichotomous variable. The findings indicate that participation in SFDP increases contraceptive use to limit Fertility and also decreases Fertility. The odds of using contraception are 5.58 times higher for women aged 35-44 years in households involved in SFDP. Living in a non-SFDP village reduces the odds of using contraception by 63%. Contraceptive use odds are 9 times higher for women aged 25-34 years participating in SFDP population education groups than those not. SFDP reduces the likelihood for both age groups of women of having children under the age of 3 years or being pregnant. Fertility Limitation is enhanced by program information and contraceptive access provided and social pressure from primary group relationships. Improving the standard of living of the small groups of rural poor has important effects of Fertility Limitation.

  • The spread of health services and Fertility Transition
    Demography, 2007
    Co-Authors: Sarah R. Brauner-otto, William G. Axinn, Dirgha J. Ghimire
    Abstract:

    We use detailed measures of social change over time, increased availability of various health services, and couples’ Fertility behaviors to document the independent effects of health services on Fertility Limitation. Our investigation focuses on a setting in rural Nepal that experienced a transition from virtually no use of birth control in 1945 to the widespread use of birth control by 1995 to limit Fertility. Changes in the availability of many different dimensions of health services provide the means to evaluate their independent influences on contraceptive use to limit childbearing. Findings show that family planning as well as maternal and child health services have independent effects on the rate of ending childbearing. For example, the provision of child immunization services increases the rate of contraceptive use to limit Fertility independently of family planning services. Additionally, new Geographic Information System (GIS)-based measures also allow us to test many alternative models of the spatial distribution of services. These tests reveal that complex, geographically defined measures of all health service providers outperform more simple measures. These results provide new information about the consequences of maternal and child health services and the importance of these services in shaping Fertility transitions.

  • new ideas and Fertility Limitation the role of mass media
    Journal of Marriage and Family, 2004
    Co-Authors: Jennifer S Barber, William G. Axinn
    Abstract:

    This article investigates the mass media as a social change that shapes individual behavior primarily via ideational mechanisms. We construct a theoretical framework drawing on social demography and social psychology to explain how mass media may affect behavior via attitudinal change. Empirical analyses of 1,091 couples in the Chitwan Valley Family Study, using detailed measures of social change from rural Nepal, show that exposure to the mass media is related to childbearing behavior, and to preferences for smaller families, weaker son preferences, and tolerance of contraceptive use. This result should motivate greater research attention to the influence of changing ideas on behavioral changes, particularly in the study of families.

  • social change the social organization of families and Fertility Limitation
    American Journal of Sociology, 2001
    Co-Authors: William G. Axinn, Scott Thomas Yabiku
    Abstract:

    The social organization of the family is a key link between macrolevel social change and individual‐level childbearing behavior. The family mode of organization framework and life course perspective are used to develop hypotheses about these links. To test those hypotheses, the analysis uses a combination of life history and neighborhood history measures designed explicitly for this purpose. Results from fully dynamic multilevel hazard models demonstrate both childhood and adult community contexts shape childbearing in independent ways. The results implicate a variety of specific mechanisms linking social change to Fertility behavior: cost‐benefit analysis, ideational diffusion, and long‐term personality development. The results also show contextual characteristics at multiple points in the life course may each exert independent effects on individual outcomes.

David W Lawson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • The offspring quantity-quality trade-off and human Fertility variation
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2016
    Co-Authors: David W Lawson, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
    Abstract:

    The idea that trade-offs between offspring quantity and quality shape reproductive behaviour has long been central to economic perspectives on Fertility. It also has a parallel and richer theoretical foundation in evolutionary ecology. We review the application of the quantity-quality trade-off concept to human reproduction, emphasizing distinctions between clutch size and lifetime Fertility, and the wider set of forces contributing to Fertility variation in iteroparous and sexually reproducing species like our own. We then argue that in settings approximating human evolutionary history, several factors limit costly sibling competition. Consequently, while the optimization of quantity-quality trade-offs undoubtedly shaped the evolution of human physiology setting the upper limits of reproduction, we argue it plays a modest role in accounting for socio-ecological and individual variation in Fertility. Only upon entering the demographic transition can Fertility Limitation be clearly interpreted as strategically orientated to advancing offspring quality via increased parental investment per child, with low Fertility increasing descendant socio-economic success, although not reproductive success. We conclude that existing economic and evolutionary literature has often overemphasized the centrality of quantity-quality trade-offs to human Fertility variation and advocate for the development of more holistic frameworks encompassing alternative life-history trade-offs and the evolved mechanisms guiding their resolution.

  • Fertility, parental investment, and the early adoption of modern contraception in rural Ethiopia.
    American Journal of Health Behavior, 2012
    Co-Authors: Alexandra Alvergne, David W Lawson, Parry M.r. Clarke, Eshetu Gurmu, Ruth Mace
    Abstract:

    OBJECTIVES What triggers initial shifts to Fertility Limitation as populations undergo socioeconomic development remains poorly understood. Alternative models emphasize the social contagion of low Fertility ideals, or the individual perception of economic and/or fitness benefits to Fertility Limitation. Few micro-level studies in communities experiencing the earliest stages of the demographic transition are available. In a previous study, we found little support for the role of social transmission through friendships and spatial networks in explaining contraceptive uptake in rural Ethiopia, where contraceptive prevalence is low (800 women which recorded Fertility, birth spacing and offspring survivorship. We first investigated whether ever-users and non-users differ in their reproductive behavior and success prior to contraception use. We then conducted a within-women analysis to investigate the impact of contraceptive uptake on reproduction and child survivorship. RESULTS Women who have experienced higher Fertility and higher child survival adopt modern contraception sooner rather than later, and contraceptive use among early adopters is predictive of greater birth spacing. However, contraceptive uptake does not have an impact on offspring survivorship. CONCLUSIONS Our data provide support for the idea that preferences for low Fertility emerge in response to increasing competition between offspring. The study has implications for our understanding of the emergence of local Fertility norms and the spread of modern birth control.

  • The life-history trade-off between Fertility and child survival
    Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2012
    Co-Authors: David W Lawson, Alexandra Alvergne, Mhairi A. Gibson
    Abstract:

    Evolutionary models of human reproduction argue that variation in Fertility can be understood as the local optimization of a life-history trade-off between offspring quantity and ‘quality’. Child survival is a fundamental dimension of quality in these models as early-life mortality represents a crucial selective bottleneck in human evolution. This perspective is well-rehearsed, but current literature presents mixed evidence for a trade-off between Fertility and child survival, and little empirical ground to evaluate how socioecological and individual characteristics influence the benefits of Fertility Limitation. By compiling demographic survey data, we demonstrate robust negative relationships between Fertility and child survival across 27 sub-Saharan African countries. Our analyses suggest this relationship is primarily accounted for by offspring competition for parental investment, rather than by reverse causal mechanisms. We also find that the trade-off increases in relative magnitude as national mortality declines and maternal somatic (height) and extrasomatic (education) capital increase. This supports the idea that socioeconomic development, and associated reductions in extrinsic child mortality, favour reduced Fertility by increasing the relative returns to parental investment. Observed Fertility, however, falls considerably short of predicted optima for maximizing total offspring survivorship, strongly suggesting that additional unmeasured costs of reproduction ultimately constrain the evolution of human family size.

  • Low Fertility increases descendant socioeconomic position but reduces long-term fitness in a modern post-industrial society
    Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2012
    Co-Authors: Anna Goodman, Ilona Koupil, David W Lawson
    Abstract:

    Adaptive accounts of modern low human Fertility argue that small family size maximizes the inheritance of socioeconomic resources across generations and may consequently increase long-term fitness. This study explores the long-term impacts of Fertility and socioeconomic position (SEP) on multiple dimensions of descendant success in a unique Swedish cohort of 14 000 individuals born during 1915–1929. We show that low Fertility and high SEP predict increased descendant socioeconomic success across four generations. Furthermore, these effects are multiplicative, with the greatest benefits of low Fertility observed when SEP is high. Low Fertility and high SEP do not, however, predict increased descendant reproductive success. Our results are therefore consistent with the idea that modern Fertility Limitation represents a strategic response to the local costs of rearing socioeconomically competitive offspring, but contradict adaptive models suggesting that it maximizes long-term fitness. This indicates a conflict in modern societies between behaviours promoting socioeconomic versus biological success. This study also makes a methodological contribution, demonstrating that the number of offspring strongly predicts long-term fitness and thereby validating use of Fertility data to estimate current selective pressures in modern populations. Finally, our findings highlight that differences in Fertility and SEP can have important long-term effects on the persistence of social inequalities across generations.

  • parental investment and the optimization of human family size
    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2011
    Co-Authors: David W Lawson, Ruth Mace
    Abstract:

    Human reproductive behaviour is marked by exceptional variation at the population and individual level. Human behavioural ecologists propose adaptive hypotheses to explain this variation as shifting phenotypic optima in relation to local socioecological niches. Here we review evidence that variation in Fertility (offspring number), in both traditional and modern industrialized populations, represents optimization of the life-history trade-off between reproductive rate and parental investment. While a reliance on correlational methods suggests the true costs of sibling resource competition are often poorly estimated, a range of anthropological and demographic studies confirm that parents balance family size against offspring success. Evidence of optimization is less forthcoming. Declines in Fertility associated with modernization are particularly difficult to reconcile with adaptive models, because Fertility Limitation fails to enhance offspring reproductive success. Yet, considering alternative measures, we show that modern low Fertility confers many advantages on offspring, which are probably transmitted to future generations. Evidence from populations that have undergone or initiated demographic transition indicate that these rewards to Fertility Limitation fall selectively on relatively wealthy individuals. The adaptive significance of modern reproductive behaviour remains difficult to evaluate, but may be best understood in response to rising investment costs of rearing socially and economically competitive offspring.

Sarah R Braunerotto - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • health services attitudes about children and Fertility Limitation
    International Journal of Sociology, 2015
    Co-Authors: Sarah R Braunerotto
    Abstract:

    This article investigates the role of women’s attitudes as a mechanism through which changes in social context influence individual behavior. By examining how specific dimensions of health services are related to one’s attitudes about children’s roles in the household and how those attitudes are related to contraceptive behavior, I provide new information on these intermediary social-psychological processes. My investigation focuses on a setting in rural Nepal that experienced dramatic social, economic, and demographic changes over the course of current residents’ lives. Findings reveal that social-psychological mechanisms are a key piece of the social context–individual behavior link. Increased exposure to family planning services and child and maternal health services were related to less family-oriented attitudes, and women with less family-oriented attitudes had higher rates of contraceptive use than women who felt otherwise.

  • environmental quality and Fertility the effects of plant density species richness and plant diversity on Fertility Limitation
    Population and Environment, 2014
    Co-Authors: Sarah R Braunerotto
    Abstract:

    The relationship between the environment and population has been of concern for centuries, and climate change is making this an even more pressing area of study. In poor rural areas, declining environmental conditions may elicit changes in family-related behaviors. This paper explores this relationship in rural Nepal looking specifically at how plant density, species richness, and plant diversity are related to women’s Fertility Limitation behavior. Taking advantage of a unique data set with detailed micro-level environmental measures and individual Fertility behavior, I link geographically weighted measures of flora at one point in time to women’s later contraceptive use as a way to examine this complex relationship. I find a significant, positive relationship between plant density, species richness, and plant diversity and the timing of contraceptive use. Women in poor environmental conditions are less likely to terminate childbearing, or do so later, and therefore more likely to have larger families.

  • schools their spatial distribution and characteristics and Fertility Limitation
    Rural Sociology, 2012
    Co-Authors: Sarah R Braunerotto
    Abstract:

    This study aims to shed light on the relationship between educational context and childbearing behavior. Its basis lies in two areas of research: the effects of school characteristics on academic outcomes (Card and Krueger 1996; Heyneman and Loxley 1983; Lloyd et al. 2003) and the effects of educational attainment on childbearing, Fertility Limitation, and contraceptive use (Blossfeld and Huinink 1991; Caldwell 1980; Lloyd, Kaufman, and Hewett 2000). Using this foundation, I examine the link between dimensions of school contexts and fundamental transitions in childbearing behaviors, illuminating the breadth of educational influences on social change and family behaviors. The study focuses on rural Nepal, a setting that for theoretical and empirical reasons is ideal for investigating these relationships. Many of the theories regarding the effects of changing social context on childbearing behaviors were designed to describe places like Nepal—places that have only recently experienced rapid changes in both social institutions and demographic behaviors (Caldwell 1982; Easterlin and Crimmins 1985; Montgomery and Casterline 1993, 1996; Thornton and Lin 1994). And equally important, the study site in rural Nepal serves as the source of unique longitudinal data documenting the entire local population and a rich set of school characteristics. This study is therefore able to link detailed measures of variation in school characteristics across geographic space and time with individuals’ contraceptive use over time. The result is new empirical evidence regarding the consequences of multiple dimensions of school characteristics, including spatial dynamics, for non-academic behaviors. This study adds to the research literatures on social change, education, and Fertility in three ways. First, it presents a clear synthesis of multiple theoretical approaches and delineates the complex relationship between school characteristics and individuals’ childbearing behavior. Because this approach explores how the characteristics of all community schools affect all community members—not just those attending the schools, it moves beyond previous work focused on the effects of educational attainment and/or school characteristics on contemporaneous childbearing behaviors. Second, the study investigates multiple school characteristics (specifically teacher and peer characteristics) that better elucidate the process through which schools influence individuals. Third, this research provides new information on the range of the consequences of variations in school characteristics by looking specifically at Fertility Limitation rather than educational outcomes; by incorporating all women in the community instead of limiting the analysis to only students; and by focusing on the long term, rather than short term, effects of school characteristics.

Sarah R. Brauner-otto - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Attitudes About Children and Fertility Limitation Behavior
    Population Research and Policy Review, 2013
    Co-Authors: Sarah R. Brauner-otto
    Abstract:

    The relationship between attitudes and individual behavior is at the core of virtually all demographic theories of Fertility. This paper extends our understanding of Fertility behavior by exploring how psychic costs of childbearing and contraceptive use, conceptualized as attitudes about children and contraception, are related to the transition from high Fertility and little contraceptive use to lower Fertility and wide spread contraceptive use. Using data from rural Nepal, I examine models of the relationship between multiple, setting-specific attitudes about children and contraception and the hazard of contraceptive use to limit childbearing. Specific attitude measures attempt to capture the relative value of children versus consumer goods, the religiously based value of children, and the acceptability of contraceptive use. Findings demonstrate that multiple measures of women’s attitudes about children and contraception were all independently related to their Fertility Limitation behavior.

  • The spread of health services and Fertility Transition
    Demography, 2007
    Co-Authors: Sarah R. Brauner-otto, William G. Axinn, Dirgha J. Ghimire
    Abstract:

    We use detailed measures of social change over time, increased availability of various health services, and couples’ Fertility behaviors to document the independent effects of health services on Fertility Limitation. Our investigation focuses on a setting in rural Nepal that experienced a transition from virtually no use of birth control in 1945 to the widespread use of birth control by 1995 to limit Fertility. Changes in the availability of many different dimensions of health services provide the means to evaluate their independent influences on contraceptive use to limit childbearing. Findings show that family planning as well as maternal and child health services have independent effects on the rate of ending childbearing. For example, the provision of child immunization services increases the rate of contraceptive use to limit Fertility independently of family planning services. Additionally, new Geographic Information System (GIS)-based measures also allow us to test many alternative models of the spatial distribution of services. These tests reveal that complex, geographically defined measures of all health service providers outperform more simple measures. These results provide new information about the consequences of maternal and child health services and the importance of these services in shaping Fertility transitions.

Johan Junkka - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Voluntary Associations and Net Fertility During the Swedish Demographic Transition
    European Journal of Population, 2018
    Co-Authors: Johan Junkka
    Abstract:

    This study investigates the role of changing social relations for Fertility decline during the European Fertility transition. The growth of voluntary associations at the end of the nineteenth century entailed a radical shift in the landscape of social relations in Sweden. By combining micro-census data from 1890 to 1900 with local-level membership data for three voluntary association groups, this article assesses the effect of parish-level voluntary association size on net Fertility in Sweden using mixed-effects Poisson regression models. The results show that the adoption of Fertility Limitation during the transition period was associated with the creation and diffusion of the idea of respectability within large social network organisations, an idea that has previously been shown to be connected to Fertility Limitation. Furthermore, by applying a social network perspective, the results show that the strength of the effect was dependent on the structure of the social networks in terms of size, density, and homogeneity. Voluntary association size had the strongest effect for the free churches, which created dense heterogeneous networks through systems of social control, while the size of the temperance association showed no effect on Fertility because the connections between nodes were sparse.