Marriage and union formation, families and households

Previous research from the Nordic countries suggest that Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish mothers have developed a preference for having a daughter. Finland constitutes an exception. Finnish mothers with two girls have approximately ten per cent lower risks of continued childbearing than those with two boys. If there really is a son preference, we are likely to expect two things. First, it would manifest in lower separation risks in couples with sons as compared to those with daughters. Second, there should be a higher risk of continued childbearing of women with daughters than of those with sons also at parity three. We use longitudinal population register data that make it possible to study both these aspects simultaneously, for the same women, by constructing families and follow them prospectively over time. Preliminary results of Cox regression models say that a first-born girl raises the risk of parental separation with approximately seven per cent as compared with a first-born boy. Also patterns of parity progression indicate a boy preference in Finland. Like in the U.S., these effects although seem to have attenuated during the past decades, suggesting a more egalitarian distribution of fathers’ attention to sons and daughters.

This paper uses economy, energy, resources and environmental monitoring data to analyse the natural economic condition in Northeast China, and then bases on studies of sub-resources to analyse population carrying capacity.

First of all, this paper analyzes the current land capacity in Northeast China. The comparison farmland data of from 1993 to 2008 shows that the land resources are relatively abundant in Northeast China, so the land carrying capacity in this region is strong.

Second, we use the principal component analysis to study the water carrying capacity. The results show that the first principal component is the unit of the per capita GDP, urbanization rate, water emissions per capita GDP, and the second principal component is the unit of per capita water resources and arable land water resources.

Third, this paper uses ecological footprint to study the ecological carrying capacity of Northeast China. In 2007, ecological deficit per capita reached 2.115 which indicated that Northeast China is in serious ecological deficit status.This paper builds a model of three programs to calculate ecological optimum population size. In 2007 the maximum value of ecological optimum population is 105.449 million, slightly lower than the existing population.

The aim of this paper is to explore transitions into marriage in the context of family during the 17th and 18th century in Québec. More precisely, we are interested in the occurrence of exchange marriages between sibsets. These marriages occur when two siblings from one family marry two siblings from another family. When two brothers marry two sisters, a parallel exchange marriage takes place, and when a brother and sister marry a brother and sister, a crossed exchange marriage occurs. Most research addressing this subject are qualitative and/or restricted to a community. For our study, we will explore this phenomenon at the national level of Québec, taking advantage of a quantitative life course approach. Which factors influence the hazard of being involved in an parallel or crossed exchange marriage? Are they individual characteristics, family dynamics and composition, or contextual factors? To explore these questions, we draw upon the Registre de la population du Québec ancien (RPQA). This longitudinal database is based on parish registers linked with the family reconstitution methods, providing the opportunity to trace the life course paths of thousands of individuals. To describe the importance and the distribution of marriage exchange, constant and time-varying covariates are constructed, such as sibset size.

The Second Demographic Transition posits that shifts in values have led to the postponement of marriage and childbearing, increases in cohabitation and increases in childbearing within cohabitation. It is not clear, however, whether these behaviors are practiced equally by all strata of society. Here we employ harmonized union and reproductive histories from the United States and 14 countries in Europe to examine how family formation behaviors are practiced by different educational groups. We use hazard models to explore the educational gradient of 1) entrance into first co-residential union; 2) entrance into marriage versus unmarried cohabitation; and 3) entrance into parenthood. For those in a cohabiting union we specifically focus on the educational gradient of experiencing marriage, a separation or a nonmarital birth. First results suggest that in France, Norway, and Austria, although the more highly educated frequently enter unmarried cohabitation, they are less likely than the lower educated to stay in unmarried cohabitation when having children. The number of countries analyzed will be expanded to explore how the educational gradient of these new behaviors may or may not be similar across countries.

Marriages in India are essentially endogamous in nature. The influences of western education and socio-economic transformations have led to enormous change in the existing pattern of choosing one’s life partner and marriage practices in India. For the first time, this paper presents a comprehensive empirical assessment of the extent of mixed marriages by analyzing nationally representative data from the Indian Human Development Survey (IHDS, 2005). We consider mixed marriages in the following key aspects: Inter-caste marriage, Inter-religious marriage and Inter-economic group marriage (Inter-class marriage). The trend analyses reveal that the proportion of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages has doubled in the last two and half decades. With the exception of inter-class marriages, the absolute level of mixed marriages is still exceedingly small. Besides, there are substantial variations across the states. Regression analyses show a significant socio-economic differential in the occurrence of mixed marriages. The study reveals that a very few women have the freedom to choose their spouse. These findings assume importance in the context of an increasing number of ‘honour killings’ in India in the recent years.

Child marriage –defined by UNICEF as marriage before age 18 –is a reality for millions of women. This study explores the prevalence and determinants of child marriage in Bangladesh using 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data. Both quantitative and qualitative statistical techniques were employed in this study. Overall, the prevalence of child marriage among women aged 20-49 were 82% in Bangladesh. The prevalence was higher in rural than urban areas. The both birth and marriage cohorts of women indicate that child marriage has reduced over time. The multivariate logistic regression analyses yielded quantitatively important and reliable estimates of the risk of child marriage. The rural women were significantly more likely to be married as a child than urban women. Women’s education appeared as the most single significant determinant of child marriage. The other factors identified to have significant relationship with child marriage are religion, place of region and wealth index. Education is the most viable means for raising females’ age at marriage. Remaining girls in schooling for extended period, poverty alleviation and proper implementation of the ordinance of age at first marriage may further reduce child marriage in Bangladesh.

Age at marriage is of particular interest because it marks the transition to adulthood. This study aims to examine the impact of educational attainment on the eventual probability of timing of first marriage among women in Bangladesh born during 1944-1987 using data from the last five Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys. Cox proportional hazard models were constructed to assess the effect of education on the timing of marriage. The women’s educational attainment has increased over time. The both birth and marriage cohorts indicate that the mean age at first marriage has been increased gradually. The estimated risk ratios and cumulative probabilities of the Cox proportional hazard analyses revealed that the women born in more recent cohorts and those married in the more recent years were significantly more likely to marry later than those born in earlier and married in the early years. The trends and differentials we document in this study reflect delayed marriage due to increased level of education. The factors hidden behind early marriage in Bangladesh are social custom, beliefs, cultural practices, poverty and violation of ordinance of age at first marriage. Any program to reduce early marriage should address the remaining girls in schooling for extended period and poverty alleviation.

Based on the question proposed by Neil J. Diamant, our study sorted out the families-laws for 1950-1953, 1954-1966, 1966-1968, and displayed the process of extracting concept from the politicalizing laws. Furthermore, we summarized the reasons of families powered thoroughly by state. Firstly, the consensus of state in charge of families is the basis of culture to produce it. Secondly, the degree of state’s legitimacy authorized by demos is the crutch of it. Thirdly, the unintended results of policies and the state’s scattered makes penetration unprincipled. Finally, Confucian culture in China further consolidated this way of state-family interaction.

Transforming demographic, socioeconomic and cultural forces have jointly brought about profound changes to the family organization in China. By situating the family organization into the broad context of modernization and globalization, this paper traces the changing trend, patterns and characteristics in family structure and its consequences for family relationships, function and values in China. More changes have been detected in a centennial perspective, while more continuities in a decadal perspective. Overall, family size has reduced and family forms have become more diversified in the past three decade, which has simplified and distanced family relationship (while intimate), weakened many family functions and reshaped family norms and culture. While changing in various ways and important challenges remain, however, the Chinese family has been resilient to societal transformation, if ever changing, due to its deeply rooted tradition and current structural constraints, which maintain family solidarity, integrity, and cohesion. In the future, both the government and the family have to face decreased ability to maintain family functions to keep pace with demographic transition, persistently large-scale migration and geographic separation among family members, and a surge in changing norms towards the family.

Marital stability is an increasingly important question in the transformation of the surplus rural labor force in China. This paper investigates the relationships between mobility, family values and marital satisfaction of rural inhabitants.The objective of the analysis is to examine the effect of family values on the influence of out-migration with couple’s living seperation on marital satisfaction with spouse. Data were obtained from a sample of 678 married people in Chaohu of Anhui province of central China in 2010. The results show that there is a significant negative correlation between seperation and satisfaction with spouse. However the correlation is weakened by family-dominated culture, which is still strong in rural China. Implications of these results for marital stability and changes of rural families are discussed.