Abstract: BACKGROUND Research on the fertility behavior of descendants of immigrants has focused on female characteristics and has largely neglected those of the male partner. One key aspect is whether the partner is of same (endogamous) or of different (exogamous) ethnic origin. Moreover, the male partner may be born in the same country as the female partner, or he may have migrated to that country later in the life course. Consequently, both his ethnic origin and migration history may affect the fertility behavior of second-generation women. OBJECTIVE This study analyzes to what extent second and higher order births of second-generation women of Southern European, Turkish, or Moroccan origin in Belgium differ by the ethnic origin and migration history of the male partner. METHODS We apply event history methods using the 2001 Belgian Census, linked with the 2006 Belgian National Population Register. RESULTS Women of Turkish and Moroccan origin in an endogamous union experience higher second and subsequent birth rates than their counterparts in an exogamous union. However, no variation is found within the endogamous unions: Whether or not the endogamous partner has been born in the country of origin does not seem to affect second and higher order birth rates. For women of Southern European origin, second and higher order birth rates do not differ by origin and generation of their partner.
Abstract: BACKGROUND Despite increasing attention being paid to the temporal dynamics of childhood disadvantage, children’s neighborhood characteristics are still frequently measured at a single point in time. Whether such cross-sectional measures serve as reliable proxies for children’s long-run neighborhood conditions depends on the stability in children’s neighborhood experiences over time. OBJECTIVE We investigate stability in children’s neighborhood environment over time, focusing on two of the most commonly studied neighborhood socioeconomic conditions: The ethnic composition and mean income of the neighborhood. METHODS Drawing on data from the Dutch population registers, an entire cohort of children born in the Netherlands in 1999 (n=179,166) is followed from birth up until age 15. We use year-to-year correlations in the percentage of non-Western ethnic minorities and the mean logged income in the neighborhood to evaluate the temporal stability of children’s neighborhood experiences. RESULTS Results indicate that children’s neighborhood characteristics are more stable over time with regard to ethnic composition than with regard to the mean income. Children who had moved at least once had less stability in neighborhood characteristics than children who never moved. Finally, neighborhood experiences were found to be more stable over time for ethnic minority children, although differences were small with regard to mean income in the neighborhood. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that single point-in-time measurements of neighborhood characteristics are reasonable proxies for the long-run ethnic composition of children’s neighborhood environment, but rather noisy proxies for the long-run income status of their neighborhood, particularly for those who moved.
Abstract: BACKGROUND The increasing prevalence of higher-order unions is one of the major changes in family life in recent decades. OBJECTIVE By using register data, we aim to give a unique view on how income components – amount and composition – influence the likelihood of repartnering after divorce or separation in Belgium. METHODS We analyse a sample of 46,648 broken marriages and 67,053 separated cohabitations from the Belgian Data Warehouse Labour Market and Social Protection database, using discrete-time event history models. RESULTS The chances of men repartnering increase in higher income quintiles. Women in lower income quintiles are more likely to repartner, while women in higher income groups are less likely to repartner. These patterns have been found to hold regardless of the type of previous union. Furthermore, divorcees are more likely to repartner than former cohabiters are. The type of previous relationship hardly influences the impact of the amount of income on repartnering dynamics. As for the composition of income, being divorced decreases repartnering chances in cases of irregular labour, irrespective of gender. Women who are in work are more likely to repartner if they are divorced rather than separated, while men receiving unemployment benefits and integration income are more likely to repartner if they are divorced. CONCLUSIONS Repartnering is evolving to a two-tier system, with a wide discrepancy between lowest and highest income groups. Type of previous relationship makes hardly any difference to the impact of the amount of income on repartnering dynamics, but partially drives the impact of the composition of income.
Abstract: BACKGROUND Segregation in Southern cities has been described as a 20th-century development, layered onto an earlier pattern in which whites and blacks (both slaves and free black people) shared the same neighborhoods. Urban historians have pointed out ways in which the Southern postbellum pattern was less benign, but studies relying on census data aggregated by administrative areas – and segregation measures based on this data – have not confirmed their observations. METHODS This study is based mainly on 100% microdata from the 1880 census that has been mapped at the address level in Washington, D.C. This data makes it possible to examine in detail the unique spatial configuration of segregation that is found in this city, especially the pattern of housing in alleys. RESULTS While segregation appears to have been low, as reflected in data by wards and even by much smaller enumeration districts, analyses at a finer spatial scale reveal strongly patterned separation between blacks and whites at this early time.
Abstract: BACKGROUND There has been growing interest in the stalled transition to adulthood in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and its consequences for young people’s socioeconomic outcomes. However, little is known about how important life transitions relate to youth psychosocial well-being in the region. OBJECTIVE Drawing on a life course framework, we estimate the associations between making transitions in education, employment, and marriage with changes in mental health among young people in Egypt. METHODS We descriptively analyze mental health scores, measured via the Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 and disaggregated by gender, for a panel of young people first surveyed in 2009 at ages 13–29 and followed up in late 2013 and early 2014. We regress change in mental health scores against indicators of making different transitions. RESULTS Young women experience worse mental health than young men overall. Lower school achievement was associated with poorer mental health; being out of the labor force was an additional risk factor for young men. While average mental health scores improved over time, over a quarter of the sample experienced worsening mental health, related to failure to marry and find a job among older men, and failure to finish schooling among younger women. CONCLUSIONS Mental health is an important but often overlooked component of youth well-being during the transition to adulthood in MENA, and potentially other low- and middle-income countries.
Abstract: BACKGROUND Childlessness has increased in many European countries. Partnerships and parenthood are obviously closely related, but there is relatively little knowledge on how childlessness is linked to contemporary union dynamics that involve high rates of separation and unmarried cohabitation. OBJECTIVE To situate (biological) childlessness in longitudinal dynamics of union formation and stability, we take a life-course approach to union trajectories that consist of states entered via the formation and dissolution of cohabitations and marriages. Concretely, we identify groups of similar union trajectories of individuals between the ages of 18 and 39 who are childless at age 42. METHODS We analyse register data on Finnish men and women born in 1969 and 1970 (childless N=3,241) with sequence, cluster, and multinomial logistic regression methods. RESULTS Four clusters of typical union trajectories were identified among the childless and assigned these labels: 1) Never Partnered (45%), characterized by never having entered a coresidential partnership, or just having entered a cohabitation near age 40; 2) Briefly Cohabited (25%), characterized by mostly living single after a brief cohabitation spell; 3) Cohabitors, Often Serial (19%), marked by typically discontinuous cohabitation; and 4) Married (11%). The Never-Partnered cluster is male-dominated. Men with a rural background and less-educated men and women are overrepresented among the Never-Partnered childless. CONCLUSIONS For the great majority of the childless in our study cohorts, union trajectories are marked by either the (almost) complete absence of coresidential unions or fragmentary cohabitation histories. COMMENTS We recommend that you read the paper on screen or print a color version.
Abstract: BACKGROUND Uninformed generalizations about how many elderly people have ever lived, based on a poor understanding of demography, are found in a surprising number of important publications. OBJECTIVE We extend the methodology applied to the controversial question “how many people have ever been born?” initiated by Fucks, Winkler, and Keyfitz, to the proportion of people who have ever reached a certain age y and are alive today (denoted as π(y, T ))). METHODS We first analyze the fraction π(y, T )) by using demographic data based on UN estimates. Second, we show the main mathematical properties of π(y, T )) by age and over time. Third, we complete our analysis by using alternative population models. RESULTS We estimate that the proportion who have ever been over 65 that are alive today (as of 2010) ranges between 5.5 and 9.5%. We extend the formal demographic literature by considering the fraction of interest in two frequently referred models: the stable and hyperbolic growth populations. CONCLUSIONS We show that statements claiming half of all people who have ever reached the age of 65 are alive today ranges would never be attainable, neither theoretically nor empirically, according to existing data.
Abstract: BACKGROUND Since the 1960s the inclination to get married has been declining in almost all western industrialised countries. Partnership arrangements have become more diverse and the share of cohabiting couples and nonmarital births has been increasing. Yet there are substantial regional differences in marriage and childbearing patterns, and the differences between eastern and western Germany are especially striking. We assume those differences can be partially explained by social norms and different attitudes towards marriage, cohabitation, and childbearing. OBJECTIVE We explore the views and values young people in eastern and western Germany hold about marriage, cohabitation, and childbearing and how those views relate to individual life experiences. We also examine different social norms and contexts in both parts of the country. METHODS We analyse data from qualitative focus group interviews conducted in in Rostock (eastern Germany) and Lübeck (western Germany) with women and men aged 25−40. RESULTS Our findings indicate that there are normative differences between eastern and western Germans in their attitudes towards partnership, marriage, and family formation that can be traced back to the social and political conditions prior to German unification in 1990. The harmonisation of family laws and policies across Germany after 1990 did not automatically lead to a convergence in the norms and behaviours of the people living in these two regions.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE We explore whether women’s paid employment is associated with reductions in women’s stated son preference in India and whether these results vary by employment sector (agriculture, manufacturing, services, professional-technical) and skill level (education and literacy). METHODS We conduct a logistic regression analysis of the relationship between women’s paid employment and women’s stated son preference among a sample of never-pregnant Indian women. We use the 2005 India National Family Health Survey (NFHS). RESULTS Women’s paid employment in the service and manufacturing sectors is associated with significant reductions in the stated son preference of low-skilled women (i.e., low education and literacy). However, this negative association goes away for women at higher skill levels. In fact, paid employment in manufacturing is associated with significantly higher stated son preference among university-educated women. However, women’s paid employment in agriculture and the professional-technical sectors is not significantly associated with women’s stated son preference. Finally, the association between women’s paid employment and stated son preference is significantly larger for women living in north India than for women living in south and east India. CONCLUSIONS We hypothesize that significant negative associations between women’s paid employment and women’s stated son preference occur only in cases where paid employment changes the economic status of women within the family.
Abstract: BACKGROUND This study further develops Goldstein et al.'s (2013) analysis of the fertility response to the Great Recession in western economies. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the fertility reaction to different indicators of the crisis. Beyond the structural labor market conditions, I investigate the dependence of fertility rates on economic policy uncertainty, government financial risk, and consumer confidence. METHODS Following Goldstein et al. (2013), I use log-log models to assess the elasticity of age-, parity-, and education-specific fertility rates to an array of indicators. Besides the inclusion of a wider set of explanatory variables, I include more recent data (2000−2013) and I enlarge the sample to 31 European countries plus the United States. RESULTS Fertility response to unemployment in some age- and parity-specific groups has been, in more recent years, larger than estimated by Goldstein et al. (2013). Female unemployment has also been significantly reducing fertility rates. Among uncertainty measures, the drop in consumer confidence is strongly related to fertility decline and in Southern European countries the fertility response to sovereign debt risk is comparable to that of unemployment. Economic policy uncertainty is negatively related to TFR even when controlling for unemployment. CONCLUSIONS Theoretical and empirical investigation is needed to develop more tailored measures of economic and financial insecurity and their impact on birth rates.
Abstract: BACKGROUND The Philippines is the only country in the world, aside from the Vatican, where divorce is not legal. Despite the lack of divorce law in the country and the high costs of obtaining an annulment, recent data shows that a growing number of Filipinos dissolve their marital unions, either legally or informally. OBJECTIVE I document the rise of union dissolution cases in the Philippines, and investigate the different factors associated with Filipino women’s experience of union dissolution. METHODS Data is drawn from the two most recent rounds of the Philippine National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), conducted in 2008 and 2013. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression models are used in the analysis. RESULTS Results reveal that education, type of first union, and childhood place of residence are significantly associated with being divorced or separated among women in the Philippines. Filipino women with higher levels of education, those who were cohabiting without ever marrying in their first union, and those who were raised in urban settings have higher risks of experiencing union dissolution than their counterparts. Religion and ethnicity are also associated with union breakdown among Filipino women.
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