Biodemographic and sociocultural factors in two generations of families from six Polish rural and urban populations.

Abstract

There were investigated 6967 families from 6 rural regions, under industrialization, and industrialized urban regions. In the grandparents generation there were taken into account 10 traits (an education level, a mating radius, and a stature) and in parents generation 17 traits (the mentioned-above ones and a number of family members, a flat size, incomes, an employees No., a life mode, smoking etc. Numerical characteristics of traits have been calculated jointly and separately in six populations, matrices of correlation have been constructed and moreover factorial analysis have been carried out, as a result of which 8 rotated factors have been obtained. The highest cultural mobility (increase in the level of education) from generation to generation occurs in the population of textile industry town Lódź. The highest improvement of biological status, the increase in mating radius and high incomes are characteristic for this regions, too. On the other side are villages with low culture mobility (not large increase in education level), slight improvement of biological status, almost no migrations, overcrowded flats and low income per family member. The relations between pairs of traits appear to vary largely in several populations. Generally is a high correlation between the education level of the same family members in both generations. The has been stated negative correlation between grandfather stature both of the mother and the father lines, with occurring of positive assortative mating in the couples of two generations. In both investigated generations there is the positive assortative mating, but the negative correlation in the stature between grandfathers of the mother and the father lines. The grandparents education level is correlated with their and their offsprings stature. The duration of holidays is one of the best (closely correlated with others) indicators of life mode, and partially of a given family living conditions, too. 8 hidden factors have been separated: a consciousness, mode of life, a number of family members, a genetic factor (stature), migrations, living conditions, incomes. This 8 factors have different ranks (evaluated as a position in sequence expressing in % the share in being explained variance) in six investigated rural and urban populations, explaining together 54-55% of the total variance of analyzed family traits. The consciousness occurs generally as a first factor. As far, as the mode of life is concerned, the rank of its factor is less in villages than in towns, and reciprocally the ranks of such factors as a number of family members, migrations and living conditions, are greater in villages than in towns.