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Full-Text Articles in Family, Life Course, and Society
The End Of The Fertility Transition In The Developing World, John Bongaarts
The End Of The Fertility Transition In The Developing World, John Bongaarts
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Fertility declines are now underway in many developing countries, and the focus of the debate about future fertility trends is shifting from the early to the later phases of the transition. This study examines patterns and determinants of fertility in the developing world using UN estimates of the total fertility rates for 143 developing countries from 1950 to 2000. The main objective is to identify regularities in the past record that may provide clues to future trends. Three key findings emerge from this analysis. First, the pace of fertility decline decelerates as countries reach the later stages of the transition. …
Social Organization And Reproductive Behavior In Southern Ghana, Dominic K. Agyeman, John B. Casterline
Social Organization And Reproductive Behavior In Southern Ghana, Dominic K. Agyeman, John B. Casterline
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The objective of this research is to examine the association between social organization and reproductive behavior in one setting in sub-Saharan Africa. The particular focus is on the effects of social organization on the diffusion of innovative reproductive ideas and behaviors. Social diffusion is assumed to be strongly affected by patterns of informal social interaction, and these in turn are assumed to be determined in part by the social organization of local communities (gender relations, employment activity, voluntary organizations). The research draws on data collected in six communities in southern Ghana. The analysis reveals a weaker than expected association between …
Training And Support Of Developing-Country Population Scientists: A Panel Report, Jane Menken, Ann K. Blanc, Cynthia B. Lloyd
Training And Support Of Developing-Country Population Scientists: A Panel Report, Jane Menken, Ann K. Blanc, Cynthia B. Lloyd
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
This report offers an assessment of the current situation and needs for the future with regard to training population professionals. As the concerns of population scientists become more diverse and as institutions look beyond the limitations of their own programs, collaborative training programs are increasingly seen as an effective means of maximizing the training experience of students while potentially lowering overall costs. While it is clear that the most desirable situation is one in which population experts are trained primarily in high-quality institutions located in their own countries or regions, it is equally clear that this scenario is not likely …
How Long Do We Live?, John Bongaarts, Griffith Feeney
How Long Do We Live?, John Bongaarts, Griffith Feeney
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Period life expectancy is calculated from age-specific death rates using life table methods that are among the oldest and most fundamental tools of demography. These methods are rarely questioned, much less criticized. Yet changing age patterns of adult mortality in contemporary countries with high life expectancy provide a basis for questioning the conventional use of age-specific death rates and life tables. This paper argues that when the mean age at death is rising, period life expectancy at birth as conventionally calculated overestimates life expectancy. Estimates of this upward bias, ranging from 1.6 years for the United States and Sweden to …
Demographic Factors In East Asian Regional Integration, Geoffrey Mcnicoll
Demographic Factors In East Asian Regional Integration, Geoffrey Mcnicoll
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
The Remapping Asia project, to which this paper is a contribution, investigates broad spatial changes in the ways that East Asia’s political and social life are organized and economies operate. Such changes are attributable to planned action of governments, firms, and other organized groups and to the unorganized but in some measure predictable behavior of myriad families and individuals. The project’s particular interest is in processes of regionalization-both through the deliberate construction of political institutions and through the largely unplanned emergence of regional affiliations and identities. Demographic factors play a potentially significant part both in promoting and in impeding regional …