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Do Population Policies Matter? Fertility And Politics In Egypt, India, Kenya, And Mexico, Anrudh K. Jain

Reproductive Health

How are effective population policies articulated and implemented? Have international agencies played a strong role in prompting developing-country governments to adopt and implement strong population policies? How has the international debate influenced deliberations on population issues in developing countries? The impetus for the four country studies presented in this book was provided by a desire to better understand some of these issues within specific contexts. Egypt, India, Kenya, and Mexico were selected because of their demographic weight, a long history of population policies and programs, and evidence of fertility decline. The four country studies examine the influence of many forces …

Rapport Du Seminaire National [Au Mali] Pour La Definition D'Une Strategie D'Eradication De L'Excision, Population Council

Reproductive Health

This is a report on a workshop for the eradication of female genital mutilation (FGM) held in Bamako, Mali. The workshop presented the results of a literature review on FGM and the actions taken to counter the practice in Mali; provided updates on the activities of six national NGOs working on issues surrounding FGM; and developed a Plan of Action for activities aimed at reducing the practice. The workshop brought together 85 participants, including policy- and decisionmakers from the government, NGOs, and religious groups. The workshop led to the finalization of a national Plan of Action to the Year 2000 …

A Study Of Women's Preferences Regarding The Formulation Of Over-The-Counter Vaginal Spermicides, Christiana Coggins, Christopher J. Elias, Ronachai Atisook, Mary T. Bassett, Virginie Ettiegne-Traore, Peter D. Ghys, Laura Jenkins-Woelk, Earmporn Thongkrajai, Nancy L. Vandevanter

Reproductive Health

There is an urgent need for safe, effective, and acceptable vaginal barrier methods for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV, and a variety of existing spermicides have the potential to be used for both prevention of STDs and unwanted pregnancy. Unfortunately, very little is known about formulation preferences and the desirable characteristics of vaginal preparations among the diverse populations of women who would potentially use these products. In this study, we explored vaginal spermicidal preparations containing nonoxynol-9 and the characteristics that influence user preferences for three formulations, as well as the risk of vaginal and cervical irritation …

Ensuring Community Participation In Mch/Fp Activities: Lessons Learned From A Pilot Project, Abbas Bhuiya, Ubaidur Rob, Maruf Rabban Quaderi

Reproductive Health

Family planning (FP) and maternal and child health (MCH) in Bangladesh have achieved commendable success in the recent past, mostly through a large-scale government service-delivery system supported by donors and nongovernmental organizations. Although encouraged by this success, there was concern about programmatic, financial, and social sustainability of the program, including quality of services. It is now believed that most of these concerns will be taken care of if effective community participation can be ensured. A pilot project was initiated in 1997 in Anowara, a low-FP-performing area in rural Chittagong, with assistance from the Population Council. The main objective of the …

Follow-Up Household Survey In Agra District, Jayanti Tuladhar, R.B. Gupta, V.S. Sridhar, Tilak Mukherjee

Reproductive Health

This follow-up household survey in Agra District, India, was conducted with funding from USAID under the Population Council’s Asia and Near East Operations Research and Technical Assistance (ANE OR/TA) Project. The main objective of this study, as noted in this report, is to assess changes in the program indicators of family welfare activities, including some of the selected reproductive health indicators, from 1995 (before method-specific targets were withdrawn) and 1997 (30 months after targets were withdrawn). The study’s objectives are to detect changes in FP knowledge and use among currently married women in rural areas; detect changes in level of …

Follow-Up Household Survey In Sitapur District, Jayanti Tuladhar, R.B. Gupta, B.P. Thiagrajan, Tausif Alam Khan, Hemlata Sadhwani

Reproductive Health

This follow-up household survey in Sitapur, India, was conducted with funding from USAID under the Population Council's Asia and Near East Operations Research and Technical Assistance (ANE OR/TA) Project. The main objective of the study, as noted in this report, is to assess changes in the program indicators of family welfare activities, including some of the selected reproductive health indicators, from 1994–95 (before the method-specific targets were withdrawn) and 1997 (30 months after the targets were withdrawn). The study has the following immediate objectives: detect changes in family planning (FP) knowledge and use among currently married women in rural areas; …

Observations From A Study Tour Of Bangladesh And Indonesia On Their Family Welfare Programme, M.E. Khan, Jayanti Tuladhar, R.B. Gupta, Ubaidur Rob, Meiwita B. Iskandar

Reproductive Health

Bangladesh has a successful family planning (FP) program and has succeeded in bringing about a demographic transition at a much faster rate than many of its neighboring countries. The contraceptive prevalence rate in Bangladesh increased from 3 percent in 1971 to 45 percent in 1993, and the fertility rate decreased from 7.0 to 3.4 births per woman during the same period. This reflects the effort that the Government of Bangladesh, with the help of international agencies, has made to educate couples about FP and increase access and choice of contraceptive methods, even in remote areas. Another predominantly Muslim country that …

Adolescent Reproductive Health: Booklet For Parents, Rieny H. Hardjono, Rashmi Pachauri Rajan

Reproductive Health

In Indonesia, collaboration between the Center for Health Research, University of Indonesia, National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN), UNFPA Jakarta, and the Population Council resulted in production and distribution of two prototype modules as basic materials on reproductive health for families with school-age children and adolescents. An updated version for both parents and adolescents was published by BKKBN. The Population Council believed that international versions (in English) would be of value, as the gaps in information are similar worldwide with respect to topics covered by these modules. Youth are constantly thirsty for knowledge pertaining to their health, particularly their reproductive …

Country Profile Of Women's Health And Development In Indonesia, Population Council

Reproductive Health

The “Country Profile of Women’s Health and Development in Indonesia” contains a thorough review of the following: Geographical, Political, Socio-Demographic, and Economic Profile of Indonesia; Status of Women; and Women’s Health Status. In view of the complexity of the problems facing women, the document concludes that Indonesia needs a plan for the future with a gender perspective that prioritizes increased life expectancy, legal protection, and empowerment for women. To reach this goal, Indonesia started by ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and set it into law in 1984. This convention, together with …

A Discovery-Oriented Process Study Of Enactment In Family Therapy: Development Of The Family Therapy Enactment Rating Scale, Elizabeth Ong-Mythuan Fong

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

With the effectiveness of psychotherapy now well-supported in both the individual and family literatures (Garfield & Bergin, 1994), we are entering an era where questions of how and why therapy works are of interest. More specifically, there has been support and encouragement by some researchers (Rice & Greenberg, 1984; Mahrer, 1988) for the use of discovery-oriented methodologies to explore clinical phenomena that have yet to be empirically validated. The following is a discovery-oriented study of enactment, a structural family therapy intervention. The theoretical goals of enactments, their relevance to clinical practice, as well as how they are actually implemented in …

Grandparents Today: A Demographic Profile, Maximiliane E. Szinovacz

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

This article presents a demographic profile of grandparents, using the National Survey of Families and Households. Specific dimensions of grandparenthood addressed include grandparents' survival, the timing of grandparenthood, grandparents' involvement in other roles, surrogate parenting, and stepgrandparents. The data indicate considerable heterogeneity among grandparents of different genders and races or ethnicities. They also suggest modifications in previous descriptions of modern grandparenthood.

Consumer Debt, Alcohol Use, And Domestic Violence In Guam, Thomas K. Pinhey, Daniel A. Lennon, Nicholas A. Pinhey

Pacific Studies

Using community-level economic and crime data derived from secondary sources, this brief study explores the relationships between consumer debt, alcohol use, and domestic violence in Guam for the years 1982 through 1993. The results of the analysis indicate that higher levels of consumer debt are strongly related to greater alcohol consumption and domestic violence, thus suggesting that “financial strain” may be an important variable for understanding patterns of substance abuse and family violence in Guam. The implications of these results for theory and future research on substance abuse and domestic violence are also discussed.

Ackerman Lecture, Suzanne Iasenza

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The First Annual Dr. John Patten Memorial Lecture was held November 14 at the Hunter College of Social Work. CLAGS agreed to cosponsor the lecture, developed to honor the life and work of Dr. John Patten, faculty member of the Ackerman Institute for Family Therapy, Medical Director of the Institute's AIDS Project, and co-founder and co-director f the Institute's Gay and Lesbian Family Study Project. Dr. Patten was also co-founder and senior editor of In The Family Magazine, a family therapy-oriented magazine for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and their relations. He died of AIDS on October 4, 1995.

Neuroprotective Action Of Cycloheximide Involves Induction Of Bcl-2 And Antioxidant Pathways, Katsutoshi Furukawa, Steven Estus, Weiming Fu, Robert J. Mark, Mark P. Mattson

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

The ability of the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide (CHX) to prevent neuronal death in different paradigms has been interpreted to indicate that the cell death process requires synthesis of “killer” proteins. On the other hand, data indicate that neurotrophic factors protect neurons in the same death paradigms by inducing expression of neuroprotective gene products. We now provide evidence that in embryonic rat hippocampal cell cultures, CHX protects neurons against oxidative insults by a mechanism involving induction of neuroprotective gene products including the antiapoptotic gene bcl-2 and antioxidant enzymes. Neuronal survival after exposure to glutamate, FeSO₄, and amyloid β-peptide …

Opportunity, Community, And Teen Pregnancy In An Appalachian State, Robert Bickel, Susan Weaver, Tony Williams, Linda Lange

SHU Faculty Publications

Teen pregnancy has become an issue that educators and public policy makers are obliged to treat as a serious problem. Too often, explanations of teen pregnancy have included uncritical use of the notion of adolescents at risk. Recently, however, attention has been given to structurally-determined contextual factors in explaining teen pregnancy. Such contextual factors include economic and educational opportunities and costs, as well as chances for valued participation in socially and culturally stable communities. This interest in contextual factors parallels a development in the literature on high school dropouts. A data set previously employed to study variability in drop-out rates …

Counseling The Husbands Of Postabortion Patients In Egypt: Effects On Husband Involvement, Patient Recovery And Contraceptive Use, Nahla G. Abdel-Tawab, Dale Huntington, Ezzeldin Osman Hassan, Hala Youssef, Laila Nawar

Reproductive Health

An ANE OR/TA Project qualitative study conducted in 1995 probed into women’s perceptions of abortion in Egypt, and the stress that postabortion patients experience during recovery. That study drew attention to the important role husbands can play in their wives’ recovery and subsequent use of contraception. This study was designed to test the effects of involving husbands in the postabortion medical-care process. Overall, the study indicates that providing counseling to husbands of postabortion patients is feasible, as the majority of husbands either accompanied their wife on admission or at discharge from the hospital. However, administrative changes are needed to enhance …

The Commodification Of Caring : A Hospice Case Study, Tina Marie Alford Williams

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This paper discusses the process of commodification by a non-profit hospice as seen through informants and participant observation. The objective was to describe how an all-volunteer organization could transform into a business when reimbursement was introduced into the exchange equation, why it happened, and the effects the change had on the people involved. What emerged from the interpretations was a detailed description of the commodification process in four areas: a) the emphasis of the money factor in the delivery of care, b) a shift to high-tech care and sicker patients, c) a calling and its relationship to non-profit work, and …

Postabortion Care Services In Kenya: Baseline Findings Of An Operations Research Study, Julie Solo, Deborah L. Billings

Reproductive Health

In Kenya, as throughout the world, the health consequences of unsafe abortion for women of reproductive age are significant. Hospital-based studies in Nairobi have shown that unsafely induced abortion accounts for as much as 35 percent of pregnancy-related mortality and at least 50 percent of hospitals’ gynecological admissions. The concept of postabortion care (emergency treatment, postabortion family planning counseling and services, links between emergency abortion treatment services and comprehensive reproductive health care) has gained wide acceptance as one model of providing comprehensive care to women suffering from abortion complications. Integration of these three components is rarely found in public health …

Study Of Adolescents: Dynamics Of Perception, Attitude, Knowledge And Use Of Reproductive Health Care, Syed Jahangeer Haider, Shamsun Nehar Saleh, Nahid Kamal, Alan Gray

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Knowledge, perceptions, and behavior related to reproductive health (RH) and sexual matters underlie all the conditions that family planning/maternal and child health (FP/MCH) programs address, thus these are important issues for FP researchers, population policymakers, and service providers. To achieve significant levels of fertility or mortality declines, participation of adolescents in reproductive health programs, including FP/MCH, is essential. Studies focusing on sexuality and attitudes of adolescents on RH, and the interacting influences of family, community, and the social sector developmental programs (health, FP/MCH, education, women’s development) would give useful revelations. This report presents findings from a study that was designed …

Integrando La Sexualidad En La Planificación Familiar: La Experiencia De Tres Proyectos De Vih/Ets En América Latina Y El Caribe, Julie Becker, Elizabeth Leitman, Mahmoud F. Fathalla

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Esta edición de Quality/Calidad/Qualité relata la experiencia de tres asociaciones de planificación familiar afiliadas con la International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region que han tratado de incorporar una estrategia de prevención del VIH/SIDA en su esquema de trabajo cotidiano. Se examina cómo BEMFAM/Brasil, ASHONPLAFA/Honduras, y FAMPLAN/Jamaica han logrado una transición hacia una oferta de servicios de planificación familiar más enfocada en los clientes mismos y más explícita en el tratamiento de temas sexuales. En cada uno de los tres países, el personal recibió capacitación especial que no sólo los habilitó para proveer información sobre el VIH/SIDA, sino que también les …

Reproductive Control In South Africa, Carol E. Kaufman

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The controversial state-sponsored family planning program officially began in South Africa in 1974. Although the government did not implement the program on a racial basis, the program was widely believed to be linked with white fears of growing black numbers, and was attacked by detractors as a program of social and political control. In spite of the hostile environment, black women’s use of services steadily increased. Using historical and anthropological evidence, this paper delineates the links between the social and political context of racial domination and individual fertility behavior. It argues that the quantitative ‘success’ of the family planning program …

Transition To Adulthood Of Female Factory Workers: Some Evidence From Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Ian Diamond, Ruchira Tabassum Naved, Margaret Newby

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The rapidly expanding sector of garment manufacturing for export is unusual for Bangladesh in that it employs young, unmarried women in large numbers. This paper examines data from a study on garment workers in Bangladesh to explore the implications of work for the early socialization of young women. For the first time young women are given an alternative to lives where they move directly from childhood into adulthood through early marriage and childbearing. Work creates a period of transition as contrasted with the abrupt assumption of adult roles at very young ages that marriage and childbearing mandate. It is argued …

Absent And Problematic Men: Demographic Accounts Of Male Reproductive Roles, Margaret E. Greene, Ann E. Biddlecom

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Both men and women make important contributions to the production of children, yet demographic studies of fertility and family planning have tended to focus on women alone. This paper traces the development of demography’s emphasis on women and describes how the limitations of its theoretical approaches to reproduction and empirical neglect of men have been mutually reinforcing. The paper is structured around four aims: 1) to describe why men have had a relatively low profile as subjects in demographic research on reproduction; 2) to explain growing interest in studying men’s roles; 3) to evaluate existing research on men in developing …

Urbanization, Unemployment And Migration In Africa: Theory And Policy [Arabic], Michael P. Todaro

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

During the past three decades, the cities of the developing world in general, and of Africa in particular, have witnessed a remarkable and in many ways unprecedented demographic growth spurt. Despite some slowdown in rates of increase in the past few years as a result of falling wages, contracting social services, and changing demographic trends, contemporary urban areas remain the growth poles of economic progress and the lightning rods of political and social unrest. Nowhere is this dilemma more visible nor the resulting problems more intractable than in the crowded cities of sub-Saharan Africa, where projections of urban population growth …

Population And Poverty: A Review And Restatement, Geoffrey Mcnicoll

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Worldwide in the 1990s over one billion persons are estimated to have a purchasing power of below a dollar per day, the conventional demarcation of “absolute poverty.” Other dimensions of poverty, extending beyond income measures to encompass a person’s broader capabilities and social functioning, are less empirically accessible. Poverty is commonly thought to be associated with high fertility and rapid population growth (regionally, South Asia and Africa have the highest poverty rates), but that view finds little support in the extensive statistical research literature on population and poverty. However, a clear-cut depiction of such an institutionally contingent relationship is not …

Empowering The Next Generation: Girls Of The Maqattam Garbage Settlement [Arabic], Marie Assaad, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS explores the challenge of extending earning opportunities and access to valued social roles to young women in the garbage settlement of Maqattam, Egypt. This edition furthermore underscores the degree to which livelihood programs must confront the social circumstances—such as health, marriage, and cultural and family traditions—that play a major role in shaping girls' current and future economic prospects.

Teenage Pregnancy In St. Kitts-Nevis: Psychosocial And Familial Factors, Ermine T. Leader

Dissertations

Problem. This study was conducted to examine some of the factors that are related to teenage pregnancy in St. Kitts-Nevis. It focused on the relationship between teenage pregnancy and father absence/presence, intergenerational teenage pregnancy, childhood sexual abuse, and domestic violence. A young girl's view of her relationship with both parents, the self-esteem of respondents, and their level of attendance and participation in church-related activities were also studied.

Method. Two instruments were incorporated into the questionnaire administered to females in St. Kitts and Nevis between the ages of 12 and 21, some of whom had experienced a pregnancy, and others who …

Empowering The Next Generation: Girls Of The Maqattam Garbage Settlement, Marie Assaad, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of SEEDS explores the challenge of extending earning opportunities and access to valued social roles to young women in the garbage settlement of Maqattam, Egypt. This edition furthermore underscores the degree to which livelihood programs must confront the social circumstances—such as health, marriage, and cultural and family traditions—that play a major role in shaping girls' current and future economic prospects.

Introducing Sexuality Within Family Planning: The Experience Of Three Hiv/Std Prevention Projects From Latin America And The Caribbean, Julie Becker, Elizabeth Leitman, Mahmoud F. Fathalla

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This edition of Quality/Calidad/Qualité relates the experience of three family planning associations affiliated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region that have tried to incorporate an HIV/AIDS prevention strategy into their existing family planning programs and services. It examines how BEMFAM/Brazil, ASHONPLAFA/ Honduras, and FAMPLAN/Jamaica have made a transition toward a range of family planning services more focused on the clients themselves and more explicit in the treatment of sexual themes. In each of the three countries, the staff received special training that not only enabled them to provide information on HIV/AIDS, but also helped them adopt a broader …

Gender Differences In The Schooling Experiences Of Adolescents In Low-Income Countries: The Case Of Kenya, Barbara Mensch, Cynthia B. Lloyd

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Little research on education in developing countries has focused on adolescent issues at the same time, despite the fact that a growing proportion of young people are spending some time in school during the phase of their lives between puberty and marriage, there is little research on schooling as a key dimension of the adolescent experience. This paper examines the school environment in Kenya and the potential ways it can help or hinder adolescents. We focus on gender differences with a view toward illuminating some of the factors that may present particular obstacles or opportunities for girls. The paper begins …