Spatial Demography最新文献

Microdata from U.S. decennial censuses and the American Community Survey are a key resource for social science and policy analysis, enabling researchers to investigate relationships among all reported characteristics for individual respondents and their households. To protect privacy, the Census Bureau restricts the detail of geographic information in public use microdata, and this complicates how researchers can investigate and account for variations across levels of urbanization when analyzing microdata. One option is to focus on metropolitan status, which can be determined exactly for most microdata records and approximated for others, but a binary metro/nonmetro classification is still coarse and limited on its own, emphasizing one aspect of rural-urban variation and discounting others. To address these issues, we compute two continuous indices for public use microdata-average tract density and average metro/micro-area population-using population-weighted geometric means. We show how these indices correspond to two key dimensions of urbanization-concentration and size-and we demonstrate their utility through an examination of disparities in poverty throughout the rural-urban universe. Poverty rates vary across settlement types in nonlinear ways: rates are lowest in moderately dense parts of major metro areas, and rates are higher in both low- and high-density areas, as well as in smaller commuting systems. Using the two indices also reveals that correlations between poverty and demographic characteristics vary considerably across settlement types. Both indices are now available for recent census microdata via IPUMS USA (https://usa.ipums.org).

A central and unique part of Sweden’s family policy programme is care leave that working parents can use when children are sick and cannot attend (pre)school. The gender-equal policy entails that parents may divide the leave as they see fit. However, mothers and fathers do not share care leave equally and care leave patterns may vary geographically. The aim of this paper is to examine the interaction between gendered care leave and geographical context using the theory of gender contracts. We ask how geographical variation in fathers’ share of care leave varies by scale, and how both individual factors and geographical determinants, representing local gender contracts, are associated with fathers’ share of care leave. Distinctive from previous work, we use geocoded full-population register data and individualized neighbourhoods at multiple scales in order to be able to better measure contextual effects on care leave use. We find substantial spatial variation in fathers’ share of care leave, with clustering depending on scale level. Using the nearest 200 fathers with young children, a factor analysis summarizes local gender contracts into three factors labelled as elite, marginalization and private sector. Results show that especially living in local gender contract areas identified as “marginalized” positively affects fathers’ share of care leave. Living in the most segregated neighbourhoods has substantial effects on fathers’ share of care leave, but overall, neighbourhood effects are moderate. A gender contract perspective shows negotiations resulting from locally clustered gendered norms and relative resources between partners influence who stays home with sick children.

At production stage, a misunderstanding about the presentation of Table 1b occurred. 

Marriage is an important social, cultural, and biological aspect of human life but is often affected by societal changes leading to differences in family formation and reproductive behaviour. Changes in marital patterns are component of transformations in a society’s social structure. Variations in marriage patterns exist within and across countries and over time. We examine the trends and spatial patterns of marital statuses among women of reproductive age (15–49 years) in Nigeria and further determine the associated factors based on the country’s north–south divide. Data were sourced from the Nigeria demographic and health survey conducted in 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2018, and the marital patterns were classified into four categories: never married, married, cohabiting, and formerly married. A Bayesian multinomial spatial model that simultaneously estimates parameters of different forms through a geo-additive predictor was adopted, and inference was based on Markov chain Monte Carlo. Findings reveal a north–south divide in marriage patterns. Women in the northern part of the country have a higher likelihood of being in marital union, while those in the south have a higher likelihood of cohabitation. A somewhat east–west divide was obtained for formerly married. Religion and ethnicity were found to be the major factors that account for differences in marital patterns across the divide and based on rural and urban residency. Cultural practices dictated by these variables would, therefore, continue to shape marital patterns and, by extension, fertility in Nigeria. The factors are hence important to be considered in marriage related policy formulation.

Nutritional status is an important determinant of women’s health and wellbeing. However, there appears to be a dearth of information on the spatial distribution of undernutrition among women in Ghana over time. We, therefore, examined the spatial and temporal variations in undernutrition among non-pregnant Ghanaian women. Drawing on data from the 2003, 2008, and 2014 Ghana demographic and health surveys, we used geospatial techniques to show spatial autocorrelation for undernutrition levels in the study sample. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was also applied to estimate sociodemographic and contextual factors underlying the variations in the country. The results show considerable local clusterings and regional variations in undernutrition levels in the sample coupled with steady improvements within the regions over time. There was also a notable north–south divide in the undernutrition levels among non-pregnant women in the country for the study period. The spatio-temporal patterns of undernutrition levels are explained by some individual-level sociodemographic factors such as age, marital status, educational attainment, household wealth, and water source as well as the percent of regional unmet need for family planning. Policies and interventions should focus on alleviating the observed regional disparities in undernutrition levels among women while targeting and tracking higher risk women in Ghana.