Social networks and demographic outcomes

Over the last few decades, increasing attention has been paid to the issue of well-being among the elderly, and life satisfaction has been used as an indicator to evaluate older people’s life conditions, reflecting multiple and broad domains. This paper sheds some light on this topic with reference to Italy, a country characterized by an increasing ageing population. The aim is to examine life satisfaction among people aged 65 and older and its predictors. We adopt a gender approach to examine whether literature results, which show that elderly men and women have different sources of satisfaction, are confirmed. In doing this, particular attention is given to the role played by the family and its influence on the life satisfaction of older adults. As a Mediterranean country, Italy is assumed to place special importance on these aspects. The data used come from the cross-sectional surveys “Aspects of Daily Life”, carried out in Italy by the National Statistical Institute (ISTAT). As we considered the latest available surveys (2010 and 2011), we can rely on a large sample and, thus, test several hypotheses about the predictors of older adults’ life satisfaction. The results show unexpected patterns in the determinants of life satisfaction for men and women, and do not confirm previous literature.

Despite a recent focus on intimate partner violence (IPV) among men who have sex with men (MSM), the male-male couple is absent from the IPV literature. Specifically, research on dyadic factors in male-male couples and their influence on IPV is lacking. A subsample of 403 gay/bisexual men with main partners (MP) was taken from a 2011 survey. Models looked at dyadic factors, including racial differences, age differences, and social network characteristics of couples. Findings suggest that men were more likely to report perpetration of physical violence if they differed from their MP on characteristics such as race (OR 0.32, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.73), whereas MP age was associated with receipt of physical violence (OR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.88, 0.99). These dyadic differences within male-male couples may indicate a unique source of IPV risk for MSM with MPs.

Nigeria accounts for 10% of world’s maternal deaths. Meanwhile 62% of women deliver at home and 36% receive postnatal care. The poor maternal health situation has been linked to ethnic origin, but little is known about the role of ethnic diversity and homogeneity in the use of maternal health care services. We assessed the role of diversity and homogeneity in the utilization of delivery and postnatal care using a representative sample of 17542 women aged 15-49 years from the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Multivariate logistic regression was employed to examine the association between ethnicity and the use of delivery and postnatal care. Preliminary results indicated that women who lived in communities with high proportion of women from different ethnic groups were less likely to deliver in a heath facility compared to those who lived in homogenous communities. Living in high ethnic diversity communities is significantly associated with increased odds of receiving postnatal care. Results demonstrated that ethnic diversity plays important role in understanding the differences in the utilization of maternal health care services. Findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving the use of maternal health care should take into account the concentration of ethnic groups in the community.

International research on individual behaviour has shown the importance of the network of relationships that bind the individuals to the people who are close to them.
Mainly in those countries, such as Italy, where the welfare system and the national agencies are weak and unable to suitably support people facing difficulties, the network’s role can be substantial.
For the Italian scenario, the 2003 and 2009 Multipurpose survey, “Famiglia e Soggetti Sociali” (FSS), carried out by ISTAT offers some challenges to measure the ego-centered social support networks of Italian couples along the different phases of family formation.
Focusing on individuals aged between 18 to 44 years old living as couples, our research questions concern:
• the characteristics of partners’ ego-social support networks;
• the types of help couples receive from people outside the immediate family;
• the effect of network typologies on the probability of receiving help in the household life course.
First results show a narrow social support network. Slight differences in partners’ availability of resources also emerge. The couple’s network size or even only the female’s network size has a significant positive effect on the probability of receiving help. Nevertheless, relying on the male social support network reduces this probability.

This methodological paper describes systematically the steps towards exploring client perceived barriers to enroll in a National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana. To unravel clients’ motives we adopt a Participatory Action Approach, which allows inquiring deeply in clients’ assumptions and root causes of the barriers to health insurance enrolment, while transferring learning among multiple stakeholders in the system: the client, the healthcare provider and the insurer. We employ a linked trajectory of qualitative and quantitative methods to gather in depth- individual views and interpretations, followed by two stakeholder validation meetings to capture emic concepts arising from group interaction. To obtain generalizeable knowledge the data is used for the design of a survey. Based on all data interventions were developed that engage all stakeholders. Data was collected in 2011 and 2012 among clients in their local communities in two regions in Ghana. This paper aims to add to the existing literature by describing and reasoning the scientific contribution of the Participatory Action Research. We claim that this participatory approach leads to reliable, rich data and evidence based interventions, aiming at client centered services and increased enrolment in the health insurance.

The study assesses the effects of household structure on children’s nutritional status in Ethiopia using data obtained from 8847 children sampled in the 2004 National Welfare Monitoring Survey. Hypotheses dealing with the linkage between child well-being and household structure are tested. The results revealed that children in single parent nuclear households are much more vulnerable to poor nutritional status than those in two-parent nuclear and extended households. The persistent disadvantageous position of poor and single parent households that do not have access to high child caring capacity and welfare support unveils that lack of resources (i.e. financial, material, and labor) within the household affects
child well-being in traditional societies like Ethiopia. High level of maternal education is associated with a better nutritional status of children while large number of siblings increases the likelihood of being stunted. Thus, household structure affects the nutritional status of children through the mediating effects of economic and socio-cultural factors.

Participating in and presenting gifts at funerals, weddings, and other ceremonies held by fellow villagers have been regarded as social norms in many parts of the world for thousands of years. However, it is more burdensome for the poor to take part in these social occasions than for the rich. Because the poor often lack the necessary resources, they are forced to cut back on basic consumption, such as food, in order to afford a gift to attend the social festivals. For pregnant women in poor families, such a reduction in nutrition intake as a result of gift-giving can have a lasting detrimental health impact on their children. Using a primary census-type panel household survey in rural China, this paper first documents the fact that child health status has barely improved in the past decades despite more than double digit of annual per capita income growth. Next, we show that social squeeze plays an important role in explaining this phenomenon. The toll of participating in social events is heavy for the poor - prenatal exposures to social ceremonies would significantly lower the height-for-age z-score of children born to poor families. This finding sheds some light on the Angus Deaton's “food puzzle” as to why the nutritional status of the poor tends to be stagnant amid rapid income growth in developing countries.