Consequences of the timing of childbearing for fertility trends and gender equality

Reproductive trajectories in India demonstrate an exceptional pattern not seen elsewhere in other low and middle income countries. Births are increasingly compressed in shorter intervals and many Indian women complete childbearing at very young ages. This is particularly the case in Andhra Pradesh where an intensive sterilization-driven family planning program brought down fertility rate way below replacement level in a relatively short period. The Andhra model, although successful in reducing fertility rates, is certainly extreme in India. The critical question is: to what extent other large, high fertility states follow the Andhra model? Using birth history data from three successive rounds of the National Family Health Surveys, this paper uses multi-state analysis to investigate the age-period-cohort variations determining the sequencing and timing of reproductive events in Indian states. The accelerated childbearing pattern depicted in Andhra is rapidly converging in other medium/high fertility states even among young educated cohorts of women.

Despite a wide range of studies on determinants of increased sex ratio of population in Asia, little attention has been given to the role of the stopping rule in human fertility. This paper explores the hypothesis that the stopping rule has an impact on the sex ratio of last births (SRLB). We have used a new method to quantify such impact and to estimate the SRLB. This method includes a model to measure the parity stop ratios (PSR) at the male and the female last births. The hypothesis is tested using data from latest Nepal demographic health survey. The results of the model clearly present a huge impact of differential in stopping rule behaviour on sex ratio at birth. When we consider normal SRB 105, the estimates of sex ratio at last births are varying between SRB 120 to 108 across the different parities. However, we consider, differential in stopping rule in human fertility model, the sex ratio at last births are highly skewed towards male children which varying between SRB 309 to 127 across the different parities.

The decreasing child female to male ratio has been one of the important concerns in India’s demography in recent times. A general public concern of late is the apparent association of child female to male ratio and fertility decline. Different states of India are in various stages of fertility transition. It will be worthwhile to identify the states, which contribute to the decline in child sex ratio at all India level. A decomposition exercise is attempted in this study. The decomposition shows that change in the female-male ratio is mainly guided by the “total effect of changes in the female-male ratio” for both the age-groups (0-4 and 10-14). States with initial low female-male ratios and faster decline in population growth have contributed to all India female to male decline to some extent. Now the question arises, why the states which have less discrimination against female children, and also have insignificant use of newer technology to identify sex at fetal stage have witnesses a decline in the FMR? It may happen that once the fertility transition will be over female to male ratios will stabilize. In case of states which are identified as disturbing, stringent measures to curb the sex selective abortions are required.

Age at first marriage has a major effect on childbearing because women who marry early have, on average, a longer period of exposure to the risk of becoming pregnant and a greater number of lifetime births. To reduce fertility, early marriages should be prohibited and necessary interventions are required. But what’s the nature and extent of age at first marriage in Bangladesh under the legal age of marriage is 18 years for women needs to be explored. This study uses the fifth rounds of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys (1993-2007) following descriptive method of analysis. Result shows that although the legal age of marriage in Bangladesh is 18 years for women, a large proportion of marriages still take place before the legal age. Within a given age cohort, there is much greater variation in the proportion of men marrying by different ages than in the proportion of women marrying by those same ages. As the use of law as a means of regulating early marriage is in no way sufficient it should be encouraged to create a policy environment that supports later marriage, through legal reform, and affirmative policies and programs on behalf of women those who are vulnerable.

Is it abnormal that almost 8% Indian women who are higher educated nowadays getting their first child at age 30 or above. So what is the ‘normal’ age of having a first child and when we do talk about late fertility. From a biological and health prospective, the best timing is before a women turns 24 years of age but from a socio-economic prospective, the best timing probably somewhat latter as women is better educated and with a good position in the labour market. Thus postponement behavior prevails. As fertility is increases at later parental ages in most developed countries and this phenomenon is a recent emergence in developing countries. Though, late fertility is not a dominant phenomenon in India but it is an emerging phenomenon. However, virtually there is no formal effort to quantify the late fertility in India. The present paper is just one step in this direction.

It is often argued that in a developing country scenario couples generally cannot plan their family size well in advance with a calculation of net lifetime return of schooling. Therefore question arises, whether quantity-quality trade-off is actually occurs within the fertility decision making process or not. Rural and illiterate couples are more disadvantageous situation and it is therefore imperative to know their fertility intention or what exactly they thought of having or not having a child. The results of primary survey data show that most of the couple doesn't plan their fertility. Findings suggests that only schooling aspiration for children generally do not influence the couples to stop child bearing, so even if child schooling decision is influencing the fertility decision the proportion of couple doing so is small. Thus, quantity affects the quality, but desire to improve quality is not reducing quantity, though younger couple is showing some hope.

Much has been said the ‘’exceptionally’’ high Palestinian fertility. Even though the fertility transition is well under way it is clear that the classical theory of demographic transition cannot explain the continued strong demand for children in the modern yet conflicting context of Gaza or the differences with the West Bank. Several hypotheses have indeed been brought up to explain the factors surrounding the ever-high Palestinian fertility. This paper thus aims to better understand the mechanisms of fertility change in both regions by estimating trends in annual marital conception probabilities with a discrete-time logistic regression model. We argue that the economic downturn has a bigger impact on the conception probabilities than the state of belligerence and the increase in the age at marriage does not affect overall fertility because birth intervals decrease among older age groups.

While most European countries have experienced very low fertility for a long period, the TFR in Norway has increased since the mid-1980s and is now among the highest in Europe. Paradoxically, during the same period childlessness among men has also grown. More men live without children and the “child environment” is increasingly gendered. This paper concentrates on young people’s “child environment” through a gender perspective. The paper analyses semi-structured interviews of 90 Norwegian women and men in their prime reproductive ages (25-40 years), with and without children, from upper middle and working classes during 2010. The network analysis focuses on the role of friends in particular, emphasising the concepts of social influence and social learning (Mische, 2011; Rossier and Bernardi, 2009). The analysis suggests that few men discuss childbearing with in their friendship networks. To childless men with partners her networks seem to have an important social influence also on men’s childbearing. While discussions among men are few, social learning is transmitted through observing changes in the life of male friends with children.

This study investigates whether the different circumstances of parenthood that adoptive parents and biological parents encounter lead to different divorce risks. An adoption involves a large emotional and economic investment, and the potential parents undergo an arduous investigation for approval to adopt by the social authorities. Other stressful factors might be the child’s attachment to the new parents, and the child’s development in school, which has been shown to lag behind other children of the same age. Such tensions could increase the divorce risk. However, a gender equal parenthood with involvement from both parents has the potential to decrease this risk. We will study this question in Sweden, a country with a relatively high rate of divorce, strong gender equality norms, as well as a high proportion of internationally adopted children. The study makes use of administrative register data that covers the entire Swedish population over the period 1993-2007. The divorce risk will be investigated with event history analysis. By adjusting for factors shown to correlate with divorce risks we will be able to draw conclusions about the interrelationship between the different circumstances of parenthood for these two groups of parents, gender equal parenthood, and divorce risk.

Since the 1970s, married women have been increasingly participating in the labor force and providing a greater share of household incomes. Little is known about how women’s rising income contributions might influence couples’ fertility behavior. This study explores the relationship between husbands' and wives’ share of household income and fertility trajectories among married couples in the U.S. using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The authors employ event history models to investigate differences in the propensity of having a second or third child. In unadjusted analyses, the relationship between relative income and subsequent childbearing follows a U-shaped pattern such that equal earner families are less likely than male and female breadwinner families to have second and third births . However, in fully adjusted models, only significant associations with male breadwinner families remain.