Studies on medical and population subjects最新文献

"This chapter compares fertility patterns and trends in Britain with those in other West European countries. Britain shares many features in common with the rest of Western Europe: fertility below the replacement level, late childbearing with births over age 30 becoming more common. Britain stands out, however, by having one of the highest birth rates in Europe and is one of the few European countries not facing population decline in the medium term. Average age at first marriage and first birth are relatively young. Britain also has one of the highest proportions (30 per cent) of births outside marriage...[with] at least a quarter of all children...likely to experience a single parent home or a reconstituted family before age 16." Some data for the rest of the United Kingdom are also discussed.

"A variety of time-series approaches to the analysis of fertility are considered. Attention is concentrated on published official data [for the United Kingdom], although alternative approaches such as more sophisticated period measures and cohort indicators are also discussed. The advantages of a period perspective are emphasized. A proximate determinants approach to the analysis of fertility is advocated."

"This chapter shows that...there are many different aspects to the cost of a child and...many different measures have been developed. The chapter...argues that theories of fertility need to specify carefully the definition of child costs and that the assumptions underlying existing measures need to be made plain.... The review is divided into three major sections: babies, childcare and children. The sources covered range from popular magazines and Mothercare catalogues to the only large-scale official [U.K.] survey of maternity and its costs, undertaken in 1946. The items covered range from the price of babies' essentials to the fees at schools...as well as the costs of maintaining a child at university."

"The chapter reviews briefly the history of inquiries into the relationship between women's employment and fertility, at the individual level. Research on the subject appears to have reached an impasse....The first aim of the present chapter is to clarify why this is so and to present a view regarding what can be done to move the subject forward....A core problem is considered that impedes progress in investigating the individual-level relationship between labour force activity and fertility and how this may be resolved. A second aim is to put forward a schematic theory that might form the basis for organizing ideas on the subject. The chapter draws mainly on research carried out in developed countries...."

"An own-child analysis is applied to the household composition data of two rounds of the U.K. Labour Force Survey, each of which has a sample size of about 200 thousand people. Period parity progression ratios and the corresponding total fertility measure (TFPPR) are derived for up to twenty years before the survey date. The biases that arise when using such a source are discussed and assessed by replication using surveys in different years. Methods for correcting bias are developed. Analysis of the standard errors of the measures suggests that such sources provide the most precise, routine and timely indicators of period fertility in many situations...."

"Accompanying the rapid rise of unmarried cohabitation and the decline in nuptiality, Britain experienced a sharp increase in the number and proportion of births outside wedlock....84% of this recent increase corresponds to jointly registered births which can therefore be assumed to occur to informal couples. This chapter explores this new fertility trend using General Household Survey data for 1989, focusing on first births to single never-married cohabitants. The informality of cohabitation as a living arrangement and shortfalls in the data...are discussed....The chapter then attempts to provide some insights into the circumstances of the first birth, the timing of birth and marriage and the relative levels of fertility in the different unions."

"Recent differentials in fertility in Britain are examined in a multivariate analysis using a combined sample of the 1986-89 General Household Surveys. The range of quantum and tempo indicators analyzed covers: total births, proportion ever marrying and each parity progression ratio up to the fourth, mean age at marriage and each birth interval up to the fourth. The differentials appearing are, by and large, narrow and are consistent with traditional findings and recent research.... In the case of education, however, several quantum variables, having displayed an initially inverse association, become directly associated with terminal education age when initial age and other factors are controlled."

"The paper uses data on women from the General Household Surveys for 1986-89 [for England and Wales] to form combined multiple decrement tables on the transitions from first marriage through childbearing, divorce and remarriage. It shows that ultimately women who experience one marital breakdown tend to have around the same number of children...as those who remain married. However, their time to complete childbearing is rather longer with this extra time being concentrated largely in the birth interval in which the marital breakdown takes place. The group of women who experience more than one marital breakdown tend to have more children and consequently shorter birth intervals."

"The problems that can arise in documenting trends in mean family size, parity progression ratios, mean age at birth and interbirth intervals are examined by means of the maternity histories collected in the [U.K.] General Household Survey of 1989. Methods of removing the various biases are discussed. The advantages and disadvantages of adopting each approach are discussed. The period parity progression approach to fertility measurement is the most efficient way of using maternity history information to document trends, but it is a little more complex to apply than other methods."