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DEMOGRAPHY, MAY 1999, VOL. 36, N° 2
Klerman, Jacob Alex; Leibowitz, Arleen.
Job continuity among new mothers.
In the early 1990s, both state and federal governments enacted maternity-leave legislation. The key provision of that legislation is that after a leave of a limited duration, the recent mother is guaranteed the right to return to her preleave employer at the same or equivalent position. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we correlate work status after childbirth with work status before pregnancy to estimate the prevalence, before the legislation, of returns to the preleave employer. Among women working full-time before the pregnancy, return to the prepregnancy employer was quite common. Sixty percent of women who worked full-time before the birth of a child continued to work for the same employer after the child was born. Furthermore, the labor market behavior of most of the remaining 40% suggests that maternity-leave legislation is unlikely to have a major effect on job continuity. Compared with all demographically similar women, however new mothers have an excess probability of leaving their jobs.
(UNITED STATES, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT, MATERNITY LEAVE, LABOUR LAW, PRONATALIST LEGISLATION, MOTHERHOOD, FIRST BIRTH).
English - pp. 145-155.
J. A. Klerman and A. Leibowitz, RAND, 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, U.S.A.
Jacob_Klerman@rand.org.
***
Roe, Brian; Whittington, Leslie A.; Beck Fein, Sara; Teisl, Mario F.
Is there competition between breast-feeding and maternal employment?
Theory suggests that the decision to return to employment after childbirth and the decision to breast-feed may be jointly determined. We estimate models of simultaneous equations for two different aspects of the relationship between maternal employment and breast-feeding using 1993-1994 data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Infant Feeding Practices Study. We first explore the simultaneous duration of breast-feeding and work leave following childbirth. We find that the duration of leave from work significantly affects the duration of breast-feeding, but the effect of breast-feeding on work leave is insignificant. We also estimate models of the daily hours of work and breast-feedings at infant ages 3 months and 6 months postpartum. At both times, the intensity of work effort significantly affects the intensity of breast-feeding, but the reverse is generally not found. Competition clearly exists between work and breast-feeding for many women in our sample.
(UNITED STATES, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT; BREAST FEEDING, MATERNITY LEAVE, DURATION OF LACTATION, HOURS OF WORK).
English - pp. 157-171.
B. Roe, The Ohio State University, Department of Agricultural Economics, U.S.A.; L. A. Whittington, The Georgetown Public Policy Institute, Georgetown University, U.S.A.; S. Beck Fein, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, HFS-727, 200 C Street, SW, Washington, DC 20204, U.S.A.; M. F. Teisl, Department of Resource Economics and Policy, University of Maine, U.S.A.
sfein@bangate.fda.gov.
***
Cancian, Maria; Reed, Deborah.
The impact of wives' earnings on income inequality: Issues and estimates.
We estimate the extent to which rising family income inequality can be explained by changes in the earnings of married women. We develop a decomposition equation that separates single persons from married couples (decomposition by population group) and, for married couples, distinguishes the impact of wives' earnings from other sources of income (decomposition by income source). Despite the rising correlation between husbands' and wives' earnings, changes in wives' earnings do not explain a substantial portion of the increase in family income inequality. Our results contradict those of some previous analyses. The inconsistency of recent estimates can be traced to the use of a variety of conceptually different approaches in the previous literature. We clarify these approaches by explicitly distinguishing the conceptual issues, analysing the empirical components, and providing comprehensive estimates.
(UNITED STATES, MARRIED WOMEN, TWO-INCOME HOUSEHOLD, FEMALE EMPLOYMENT).
English - pp. 173-184.
M. Cancian, La Follette Institute of Public Affairs, School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin, 1225 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI 53706, U.S.A.; D. Reed, Public Policy, Institute of California, U.S.A.
cancian@lafollette.wisc.edu.
***
Nixon, Lucia A.; Robinson, Michael D.
The educational attainment of young women: Role model effects of female high school faculty.
To test for the presence of role model effects of female high school faculty and professional staff on young women in high school, we estimate several models of educational attainment for young women using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Exposure to female high school faculty and professional staff has a positive impact on the educational attainment of young women. This result, combined with our finding that female faculty and professional staff have no significant impact on the educational attainment of young men, supports a female role model hypothesis.
(UNITED STATES, WOMEN, COLLEGE STUDENTS, SOCIAL ROLES, TEACHERS, LEVELS OF EDUCATION).
English - pp. 185-194.
L. A. Nixon, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., Washington, DC., U.S.A.; M. D. Robinson, Department of Economics, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075, U.S.A.
mirobins@mtholyoke.edu.
***
Bianchi, Suzanne M.; Subaiya, Lekha; Kahn, Joan R.
The gender gap in the economic well-being of nonresident fathers and custodial mothers.
Using a unique sample of couples with children, we estimate the gender gap in economic well-being after marital separation, something that previous studies of individuals who divorce have not been able to do. The income-to-needs levels of formerly married mothers are only 56% those of their former husbands. The postseparation gender gap is reduced if the wife was employed full-time and was an above-average earner before marital disruption. The gap is also relatively small among the least economically independent wives, those who were not employed before separation. For the latter group, the husband's relatively low income tends to reduce the gender gap.
(UNITED STATES, SEPARATED PERSONS, INCOME, SEX DIFFERENTIALS, INDIVIDUAL WELFARE).
English - pp. 195-203.
S. M. Bianchi, L. Subaiya and J. R. Kahn, Center on Population, Gender, and Social Inequality, Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, 2112 Art-Sociology Building, College Park, MD 20742-1315, U.S.A.
bianchi@bss1.umd.edu.
***
Roempke Graefe, Deborah; Lichter, Daniel T.
Life course transitions of American children: Parental cohabitation, marriage, and single motherhood.
We examine the life course transitions into and from families headed by unmarried cohabiting couples for a recent cohort of American children. Life table estimates, based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth mother-child files, indicate about one in four children will live in a family headed by a cohabiting couple sometime during childhood. Economic uncertainty is an important factor determining whether children in single-parent families subsequently share a residence with a mother's unmarried partner. Moreover virtually all children in cohabiting-couple families will experience rapid subsequent changes in family status. Our estimates provide a point of departure for future work on children's exposure to parental cohabitation and its social and economic implications.
(UNITED STATES, CHILDREN, LIFE CYCLE, CONSENSUAL UNION, UNMARRIED MOTHERS, ONE-PARENT FAMILY, family composition).
English - pp. 205-217.
D. Roempke Graefe and D. T. Lichter, Population Research Institute, 601 Oswald Tower, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, U.S.A.
graefe@pop.psu.edu.
***
Couch, Kenneth A.; Daly, Mary C.; Wolf, Douglas A.
Time? Money? Both? The allocation of resources to older parents.
We provide estimates of a reduced-form model of the allocation of household time and money resources. We consider four demands for these resources: time spent working, time spent providing care for noncoresident elderly parents, time spent performing housework, and monetary transfers to noncoresident elderly parents. We focus on the effects of wage rates and parental characteristics on the allocation decisions of adult children and their households concerning these four demands. We find that households with individuals earning high wages rely relatively more on cash transfers and relatively less on time transfers than do lower-wage households. We also find evidence consistent with an unmeasured tendency of some families to provide multiple sources of support.
(UNITED STATES, ECONOMIC DEMOGRAPHY, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, AGED, RESOURCE ALLOCATION).
English - pp. 219-232.
K. A. Couch, Department of Economics, University of Connecticut, U.S.A.; M. C. Daly, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, U.S.A.; D. A. Wolf, Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University, 426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, U.S.A.
dwolf@maxwell.syr.edu.
***
Phillips, Julie A.; Massey, Douglas S.
The new labor market: Immigrants and wages after IRCA.
We examine the effect of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) on migrants' wages using data gathered in 39 Mexican communities and their U.S. destination areas. We examine changes in the determinants of wages before and after the passage of IRCA, as well as the effects of its massive legalization program. Migrants' wages deteriorated steadily between 1970 and 1995, but IRCA did not foment discrimination against Mexican workers per se. Rather, it appears to have encouraged greater discrimination against undocumented migrants, with employers passing the costs and risks of unauthorized hiring on to the workers. Although available data do not permit us to eliminate competing explanations entirely, limited controls suggest that the post-IRCA wage penalty against undocumented migrants did not stem from an expansion of the immigrant labor supply, an increase in the use of labor subcontracting, or a deterioration of the U.S. labor market.
(UNITED STATES, MEXICO, IMMIGRANT WORKERS, WAGE LEVEL, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS).
English - pp. 233-246.
J. A. Phillips, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, U.S.A.; D. S. Massey, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298, U.S.A.
dmassey@lexis.pop.upenn.edu.
***
Lindstrom, David P.; Berhanu, Betemariam.
The impact of war, famine, and economic decline on marital fertility in Ethiopia.
We examine recent fertility trends in Ethiopia for evidence of short- and long-term responses to famine, political events, and economic decline. We use retrospective data on children ever born from the 1990 National Family and Fertility Survey to estimate trends in annual marital conception probabilities, controlling for women's demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The results of our analysis provide evidence of significant short-term declines in conception probabilities during years of famine and major political and economic upheaval. In the longer term, marital fertility in both urban and rural areas declined in the 1980s after increasing moderately in the 1970s.
(ETHIOPIA, LEGITIMATE FERTILITY RATE, FERTILITY DETERMINANTS, WAR, ECONOMIC RECESSION, FOOD SHORTAGE, FERTILITY TRENDS).
English - pp. 247-261.
D. P. Lindstrom and B. Berhanu, Department of Sociology and Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, Maxcy Hall, Box 1916, Providence, RI 02912, U.S.A.
David_Lindstrom_1@brown.edu.
***
Eberst Dorsten, Linda; Hotchkiss, Lawrence; King, Terri M.
The effect of inbreeding on early childhood mortality: Twelve generations of an Amish settlement.
An unresolved issue in research on child survival is the extent to which familial mortality risk in infancy is due to biological influences net of sociodemographic and economic factors. We examine the effect of consanguinity on early childhood mortality in an Old Order Amish settlement by using the inbreeding coefficient, an explicit measure of the degree of relatedness in one's ancestry. Inbreeding has a net positive effect on neonatal and postneonatal deaths. We find social, demographic, and population-based sociocultural explanations for this effect among the Amish population, which is known to experience certain genetically transmitted defects associated with mortality.
(UNITED STATES, RELIGIOUS MINORITIES, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS, INBREEDING, INFANT MORTALITY, CHILD MORTALITY, POPULATION GENETICS).
English - pp. 263-271.
L. Eberst Dorsten, Department of Sociology, SUNY-Fredonia, Fredonia, NY 14063, U.S.A.; L. Hotchkiss, IT User Services, University of Delaware, U.S.A.; T. M. King, University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, U.S.A.
dorsten@cs.fredonia.edu.
***
Hummer, Robert A.; Rogers, Richard G.; Nam, Charles B.; Ellison, Christopher G.
Religious involvement and U.S. adult mortality.
We use recently released, nationally representative data from the National Health Interview Survey-Multiple Cause of Death linked file to model the association of religious attendance and sociodemographic, health, and behavioral correlates with overall and cause-specific mortality. Religious attendance is associated with U.S. adult mortality in a graded fashion: People who never attend exhibit 1.87 times the risk of death in the follow-up period compared with people who attend more than once a week. This translates into a seven-year difference in life expectancy at age 20 between those who never attend and those who attend more than once a week. Health selectivity is responsible for a portion of the religious attendance effect: People who do not attend church or religious services are also more likely to be unhealthy and, consequently, to die. However religious attendance also works through increased social ties and behavioral factors to decrease the risks of death. And although the magnitude of the association between religious attendance and mortality varies by cause of death, the direction of the association is consistent across causes.
(UNITED STATES, ADULT MORTALITY, RELIGIOSITY, RELIGIOUS PRACTICE, CAUSES OF DEATH, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY, SOCIAL DEMOGRAPHY).
English - pp. 273-285.
R. A. Hummer and C. G. Ellison, Population Research Center and Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, 1800 Main Building, Austin, TX, 78712, U.S.A.; R. G. Rogers, Department of Sociology and Population Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, U.S.A.; C. B. Nam, Department of Sociology and Center for the Study of Population, Florida State University, U.S.A.
rhummer@prc.utexas.edu.
***
DEMOGRAPHY, AUGUST 1999, VOL. 36, N° 3
Pezzin, Liliana E.; Schone, Barbara S.
Parental marital disruption and intergenerational transfers: An analysis of lone elderly parents and their children.
Although one of the most marked demographic trends observed over the 20th century is the increased rate of divorce, relatively little research has explored the effects of these changing marital patterns in the context of an aging society. Using a sample of lone elderly parents and their adult children, we analyze the direct and indirect effects of marital disruption on four important dimensions of intergenerational transfers: coresidence, financial assistance, adult children's provision of informal care, and parental purchase of paid care. Our findings suggest that divorce has deleterious effects on intergenerational transfers, particularly for elderly fathers. Remarriage further reduces exchange. Our results reveal that parents engage in lower levels of transfers with stepchildren relative to biological children. Moreover, intergenerational transfers are sensitive to characteristics of biological children but not to those of stepchildren. Taken together these results suggest that exchange at the end of the life course continues to be adversely affected by marital disruption.
(PARENTS, CHILDREN, AGED, DIVORCED PERSONS, GENERATIONS, RESOURCE ALLOCATION).
English - pp. 287-297.
L. E. Pezzin, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hopkins Center on the Demography of Aging, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Marburg B-186, Baltimore, MD 21287-2080, U.S.A.; B. S. Schone, Center for Cost and Financing Studies, Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, U.S.A.
lpezzin@jhmi.edu.
***
Gittleman, Maury; Joyce, Mary.
Have family income mobility patterns changed?
We examine the mobility of individuals in the United States based on equivalent family income -- that is, total income of all family members adjusted for family size according to the equivalence scale implicit in the U.S. poverty line. Our analysis, which tracks movements across quintiles, centers on four questions: How much movement is there across the family income distribution? How has this mobility changed over time? To what extent are the movements attributable to factors related to changes in family composition versus events in the labor markets? In light of major socioeconomic changes occurring in the quarter-century under study, have the determinants of mobility changed over time? Our findings indicate that mobility rates in the 1980s differed little from those in the 1970s. However individuals in families headed by a young person or a person without a college education were less likely to experience upward mobility in the 1980s than in the 1970s.
(UNITED STATES, HOUSEHOLD INCOME, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, FAMILY COMPOSITION, FAMILY LIFE CYCLE, SOCIAL MOBILITY).
English - pp. 299-314.
M. Gittleman, OECD and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Paris, France; M. Joyce, Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Room 4945, Washington, DC 20212, U.S.A.
Joyce_M@bls.gov.
***
Bauman, Kurt J.
Shifting family definitions: The effect of cohabitation and other nonfamily household relationships on measures of poverty.
The current official poverty measure compares income to needs within a family. Some have suggested including cohabiting couples as part of this family. Others have suggested that the household be used as the unit of analysis for poverty measurement. I explore issues involved in expanding the unit of analysis, including the stability of cohabiting and other nonfamily household relationships and the degree of resource sharing that takes place among different types of people within households. Instability in households with nonfamily members is not a serious problem for inferring poverty from cross-sectional studies. On the other hand, income from people in nonfamily household roles contributes slightly less to helping other household members avoid financial hardship, implying that nonfamily housemates have a greater tendency to keep income to themselves.
(UNITED STATES, POVERTY, METHODOLOGY, MEASUREMENT, FAMILY COMPOSITION, COHABITATION, COMPOSITE HOUSEHOLD).
English - pp. 315-325.
K. J. Bauman, Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC 20233-8800, U.S.A.
kurt.j.bauman@ccmail.census.gov.
***
Carlson, Elwood; Hoem, Jan M.; Rychtarikova, Jitka.
Trajectories of fetal loss in the Czech Republic.
Using data for 555,038 pregnancies conceived in the Czech Republic in 1987-1990, we show that pronounced differences in fetal survival in the middle trimester of pregnancy by marital status, educational level, and labor force attachment become much smaller at full term; survival differences by age at conception and number of previous deliveries show relatively constant proportional hazards throughout gestation. Social inequalities in postpartum life chances have been documented previously, but we show that similar inequalities exist before birth.
(CZECH REPUBLIC, FOETAL DEATH, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY, SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIFFERENTIALS).
English - pp. 327-337.
E. Carlson, Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Columbia SC 29208, U.S.A.; J. M. Hoem, Demography Unit, Stockholm University, Sweden; J. Rychtarikova, Department of Demography and Geodemography, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
carlson@garnet.cla.sc.edu.
***
Kanaiaupuni, Shawn Malia; Donato, Katharine M.
Migradollars and mortality: The effects of migration on infant survival in Mexico.
We apply multilevel methods to data from Mexico to examine how village migration patterns affect infant survival outcomes in origins. We argue that migration is a cumulative process with varying health effects at different stages of its progression, and test several related hypotheses. Findings suggest higher rates of infant mortality in communities experiencing intense U.S. migration. However, two factors diminish the disruptive effects of migration: migradollars, or migrant remittances to villages, and the institutionalization of migration over time. Mortality risks are low when remittances are high and decrease as migration becomes increasingly salient to livelihoods of communities. Together the findings indicate eventual benefits to all infants, irrespective of household migration experience, as a result of the development of social and economic processes related to U.S. migration.
(MEXICO, EMIGRATION, INFANT MORTALITY, REMITTANCES, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS, ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS).
English - pp. 339-353.
S. M. Kanaiaupuni, Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706, U.S.A.; K. M. Donato, Department of Sociology, Louisiana State University, U.S.A.
skanaiau@ssc.wisc.edu.
***
Johnson, Norman J.; Sorlie, Paul D.; Backlund, Eric.
The impact of specific occupation on mortality in the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study.
We compare mortality differences for specific and general categories of occupations using a national cohort of approximately 380,000 persons aged 25-64 from the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Based on comparisons of relative risk obtained from Cox proportional-hazards model analyses, higher risk is observed in moving across the occupational spectrum from the technical, highly skilled occupations to less-skilled and generally more labor-intensive occupations. Mortality differences obtained for social status groups of specific occupations are almost completely accounted for by adjustments for income and education. Important differences are shown to exist for selected specific occupations beyond those accounted for by social status, income, and education. Highrisk specific occupations include taxi drivers, cooks, longshoremen, and transportation operatives. Low-risk specific occupations include lawyers, natural scientists, teachers, farmers, and a variety of engineers.
(UNITED STATES, DIFFERENTIAL MORTALITY, OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS, MORTALITY DETERMINANTS).
English - pp. 355-367.
N. J. Johnson and E. Backlund, Demographic Statistical Methods Division, Room 3725-3, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC 20233, U.S.A.; P. D. Sorlie, The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bathesda, MD, U.S.A.
norman.j.johnson@ccmail.census.gov.
***
Rendall, Michael S.
Entry or exit? A transition-probability approach to explaining the high prevalence of single motherhood among black women.
I analyze the prevalence of single motherhood among black and non-Hispanic white women in terms of differences in entry and exit. Higher initial entry rates among black women, especially through unpartnered childbearing, account for slightly more than half the difference between blacks and whites in the prevalence of single motherhood. The remainder of the difference is due to black single mothers' much lower rates of exit through union formation and to their very high rates of reentry through dissolution of these later unions. Entry and exit rates through the 1990s imply a widening racial gap.
(UNITED STATES, UNMARRIED MOTHERS, BLACKS, WHITES, COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS, MARITAL UNION).
English - pp. 369-376.
M. S. Rendall, Department of Sociology and Population Research Institute, Oswald Tower, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-6211, U.S.A.
rendall@pop.psu.edu.
***
Berkowitz King, Rosalind.
Time spent in parenthood status among adults in the United States.
Transition rates estimated from the 1987-1988 and 1992-1994 waves of the National Survey of Families and Households imply that a U.S. adult will spend approximately one third of the years from ages 20 to 69 as a parent of a dependent child. I distinguish biological from social parenthood and provide separate estimates by gender and race. White women conform most to the conventional image of a biological parent residing with an own child, whereas African American women spend the most adult years as a parent. On average, white men spend fewer years as parents than African American men, but African American men spend more years as biological parents not residing with any children. Implications of these descriptive findings are discussed.
(UNITED STATES, ADULTS, PARENTHOOD, LIFE CYCLE).
English - pp. 377-385.
R. Berkowitz King, University of Pennsylvania, Population Studies Centcr, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A.
’rberkowi@lexis.pop.upenn.edu.
***
Stevens, Gillian.
A century of U.S. censuses and the language characteristics of immigrants.
Since 1890, every U.S. census but one has asked about the language characteristics of the U.S. population. This almost uninterrupted data series, however, has been shaped by contemporaneous presumptions about the ties between language and ethnicity, the likelihood of proficiency in English among various subgroups, and practical constraints. I describe shifts across censuses in the phrasing of questions about language, the coding of responses, and the subpopulations for which the questions were asked and the results were published. I then describe the data generated by these items and discuss their interpretation. I conclude with a summary of the major insights and limitations of a century's worth of data.
(UNITED STATES, HISTORY, CENSUSES, LANGUAGES, CENSUS QUESTIONNAIRES, DATA COLLECTION).
English - pp. 387-397.
G. Stevens, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 702 S. Wright St., Urbana, IL 61801, U.S.A.
gstevens@uiuc.edu.
***
Goldstein, Joshua R.
Kinship networks that cross racial lines: The exception or the rule?
I estimate the frequencies of interracial kin relations, an important indicator of the isolation of racial groups in the United States. I use two techniques to estimate the size and heterogeneity of extended families. First, I develop a simple model that takes account only of kinship network sizes and intermarriage levels by race. This model allows a crude estimation of the frequency of multiracial kinship networks. Second, I produce more precise empirical estimates using a new hot-deck imputation method for synthesizing kinship networks from household-level survey data (the June 1990 Current Population Survey and the 1994 General Social Survey). One in seven whites, one in three blacks, four in five Asians, and more than 19 in 20 American Indians are closely related to someone of a different racial group. Despite an intermarriage rate of about 1%, about 20% of Americans count someone from a different racial group among their kin.
(UNITED STATES, KINSHIP, RACES, FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS, MIXED MARRIAGE, FAMILY COMPOSITION).
English - pp. 399-407.
J. R. Goldstein, Princeton University, Office of Population Research, Princeton, NJ 08544, U.S.A.
josh@princeton.edu.
***
Goldstein, Joshua R.
The leveling of divorce in the United States.
Is the recent plateau in crude divorce rates due to compositional changes in the married population or to a fundamental change in the long-term trend of rising marital instability? I use refined measures of period divorce rates to show that the leveling of divorce rates appears to be real. Compositional factors do little to explain the end to the more than century-long pattern of rising divorce. Increases in cohabitation also fail to explain the plateau. New theories are needed to explain the determinants of divorce rates at the population level.
(UNITED STATES, DIVORCE RATE, TRENDS).
English - pp. 409-414.
J. R. Goldstein, Office of Population Research, Princeton University, 21 Prospect Avenue, Princeton, NJ, 08544, U.S.A.
josh@princeton.edu.
***
Wolfinger, Nicholas H.
Trends in the intergenerational transmission of divorce.
I use data from the 1973-1996 NORC General Social Survey to examine trends in the intergenerational transmission of divorce, the propensity for the children of divorce to end their own marriages. The rate of divorce transmission declined by almost 50% in the study period. This result was essentially unchanged by statistical controls for various personal and family background differences between respondents.
(UNITED STATES, DIVORCE, GENERATIONS, PARENTS, CHILDREN, LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS).
English - pp. 415-420.
N. H. Wolfinger, Department of Family and Consumer Studies, 225 S 1400 E, Room 228, The University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0080, U.S.A.
Nick.Wolfinger@fcs.utah.edu.
***
DEMOGRAPHY, NOVEMBER 1999, VOL. 36, N° 4
Cherlin, Andrew J.
Going to extremes: Family structure, children's well-being, and social science.
In this article I argue that public discussions of demographic issues are often conducted in a troubling pattern in which one extreme position is debated in relation to the opposite extreme. This pattern impedes our understanding of social problems and is a poor guide to sound public policies. To illustrate this thesis I use the case of social scientific research examining how children are affected by not living with two biological parents while they are growing up. Over the last decade, I maintain, most of the public, and even many social scientists, have been puzzled and poorly informed by this debate. In particular I consider Judith Wallerstein's clinically based claims of the pervasive, profound harm caused by divorce and, at the other extreme, Judith Rich Harris's reading of behavioral genetics and evolutionary psychology, which leads her to dismiss the direct effects of divorce. Neither extreme gives a clear picture of the consequences of growing up in a single-parent family or a stepfamily.
(SOCIAL SCIENCES, FAMILY COMPOSITION, FAMILY DISINTEGRATION, DIVORCE, CHILDREN, FAMILY WELFARE).
English - pp. 421-428.
A. J. Cherlin, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, U.S.A.
cherlin@jhu.edu.
***
Elman, Cheryl; Myers, George C.
Geographic morbidity differentials in the late 19th-century United States.
We use a national cross-sectional database, the 1880 lntegrated Public Use Microdata Sample, to examine aggregate patterns and individual-level estimates of chronic-disease morbidity and long-term disability in the United States in the late 19th century. Despite higher levels of urban mortality in 1880, morbidity prevalence rates were highest in the rural areas of the country, especially in the western and the southern regions. Equations using microdata show that the estimated risk of chronic disease and impairment was highest for males and females who were older, of lower socioeconomic status, or from rural areas. This era was marked by geographically uneven but significant levels of endemic chronic disease, likely the outcomes of prior episodes of infectious disease and exposure to conditions generated by human action, such as the Civil War and migration.
(UNITED STATES, HISTORICAL DEMOGRAPHY, HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, MORBIDITY, GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION).
English - pp. 429-443.
C. Elman, Department of Sociology, The University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-1905, U.S.A.; G. C. Myers, Center for Demographic Studies, Duke University, Durham, U.S.A.
Cheryl2@uakron.edu.
***
Ross, Catherine E.; Mirowsky, John.
Refining the association between education and health: The effects of quantity, credential, and selectivity.
We refine the established association between education and health by distinguishing three aspects of a person's education (quantity, credential, and selectivity) and by examining the mechanisms through which they may correlate with health. Data are from the 1995 Aging, Status, and the Sense of Control Survey, a representative U.S. national telephone survey of 2,593 respondents aged 18 to 95, with an oversample of elderly. Results show that physical functioning and perceived health increase significantly with years of formal education and with college selectivity for those with a bachelor's or higher degree, adjusting for age, sex, race, marital status, and parental education. The credential of a college degree has no net association with physical functioning and perceived health beyond the amount attributable to the additional years of schooling. Of the three aspects of education, years of schooling has the largest effect. Most of that association appears attributable to its correlation with work and economic conditions, social psychological resources, and health lifestyle. A large portion of the net association of college selectivity with physical functioning and perceived health appears attributable to health lifestyle.
(UNITED STATES, HEALTH CONDITIONS, LEVELS OF EDUCATION, DIPLOMAS).
English - pp. 445-460.
C. E. Ross and J. Mirowsky, Department of Sociology, 300 Bricker Hall, Ohio State University, 190 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.
ross.131@osu.edu.
***
Freedman, Vicki A.; Martin, Linda G.
The role of education in explaining and forecasting trends in functional limitations among older Americans.
Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation, we document the importance of education in accounting for declines in functional limitations among older Americans from 1984 to 1993. Of the eight demographic and socioeconomic variables considered, education is most important in accounting for recent trends. The relationship between educational attainment and functioning has not changed measurably, but educational attainment has increased greatly during this period. Our analysis suggests, all else being equal, that future changes in education will continue to contribute to improvements in functioning, although at a reduced rate.
(UNITED STATES, AGED, DISABILITY, LEVELS OF EDUCATION, TRENDS).
English - pp. 461-473.
V. A. Freedman, Labor and Population Program, RAND; L. G. Martin, Population Council, One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.
lmartin@popcouncil.org.
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Wilmoth, John R.; Horiuchi, Shiro.
Rectangularization revisited: Variability of age at death within human populations.
Rectangularization of human survival curves is associated with decreasing variability in the distribution of ages at death. This variability, as measured by the interquartile range of life table ages at death, has decreased from about 65 years to 15 years since 1751 in Sweden. Most of this decline occurred between the 1870s and the 1950s. Since then, variability in age at death has been nearly constant in Sweden, Japan, and the United States, defying predictions of a continuing rectangularization. The United States is characterized by a relatively high degree of variability, compared with both Sweden and Japan. We suggest that the historical compression of mortality may have had significant psychological and behavioral impacts.
(UNITED STATES, SWEDEN, JAPAN, AGE AT DEATH, STANDARD DEVIATION, TRENDS).
English - pp. 475-495.
J. R. Wilmoth, Department of Demography, University of California, Berkeley, 2232 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A.; S. Horiuchi, Laboratory of Populations, Rockefeller University, U.S.A.
jrw@demog.berkeley.edu.
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Hill, Mark E.
Multivariate survivorship analysis using two cross-sectional samples.
As an alternative to survival analysis with longitudinal data, I introduce a method that can be applied when one observes the same cohort in two cross-sectional samples collected at different points in time. The method allows for the estimation of log-probability survivorship models that estimate the influence of multiple time in variant factors on survival over a time interval separating two samples. This approach can be used whenever the survival process can be adequately conceptualized as an irreversible single decrement process (e.g., mortality, the transition to first marriage among a cohort of never-married individuals). Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (Ruggles and Sobek 1997), I illustrate the multivariate method through an investigation of the effects of race, parity, and educational attainment on the survival of older women in the United States.
(METHODOLOGY, PERIOD ANALYSIS, COHORT ANALYSIS, SURVIVORSHIP TABLES, MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS).
English - pp. 497-503.
M. E. Hill, Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, 3718 Locust Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6298, U.S.A.
mhill@pop.upenn.edu.
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Schmertmann, Carl P.
Fertility estimation from open birth-interval data.
Censuses and surveys frequently collect information on period fertility through questions on the timing of last births. The standard approach to estimating fertility with open-interval data uses the proportion of women giving birth in the year before the interview. I propose a more efficient, maximum likelihood method for estimating fertility from open-interval data. I illustrate a mathematical derivation of the new method, perform sensitivity analyses, and conduct empirical tests with Brazilian census data. The new estimators leave small biases and lower variance than standard estimators for open-interval data. Consequently, the new method is more likely to generate accurate results from small or moderately sized samples.
(METHODOLOGY, FERTILITY MEASUREMENTS, ESTIMATES, BIRTH INTERVALS, SAMPLES).
English - pp. 505-519.
C. P. Schmertmann, Department of Economics and Center for the Study of Population, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2240, U.S.A.
schmertmann@fsu.edu.
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Pribesh, Shana; Downey, Douglas B.
Why are residential and school moves associated with poor school performance?
Most research on residential mobility has documented a clear pattern: Residential and school moves are associated with poor academic performance. Explanations for this relationship, however remain speculative. Some researchers argue that moving affects social relationships that are important to academic achievement. But the association between moving and school performance may be spurious; the negative correlation may be a function of other characteristics of people who move often. We offer several conceptual and analytical refinements to these ideas, allowing us to produce more precise tests than past researchers. Using longitudinal data, we find that differences in achievement between movers and nonmovers are partially a result of declines in social relationships experienced by students who move. Most of the negative effect of moving, however, is due to preexisting differences between the two groups.
(RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY, SCHOOL SUCCESS, HUMAN RELATIONS, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY).
English - pp. 521-534.
S. Pribesh and D. B. Downey, Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, Ohio 43210, U.S.A.
pribesh.1@osu.edu.
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Brien, Michael J.; Lillard, Lee A.; Waite, Linda J.
Interrelated family-building behaviors: Cohabitation, marriage, and nonmarital conception.
Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 are used to estimate a series of models of entry into marriage, entry into cohabitation, and nonmarital pregnancy, Our models account explicitly for the endogeneity of one outcome as a predictor of another by taking into account both heterogeneity across individuals due to unmeasured factors that may affect all these outcomes and the correlation in the unmeasured factors across processes. We find that these heterogeneity components are strongly and positively related across the outcomes. Women who are more likely to cohabit, marry, or become pregnant while unmarried are also more likely to do each of the others. Although black and white women differ in the likelihood of these behaviors, the interrelations of the behaviors are quite similar across groups.
(UNITED STATES, MARRIAGE, FAMILY FORMATION, CONSENSUAL UNION, ILLEGITIMATE CONCEPTIONS, MODELS).
English - pp. 535-551.
M. J. Brien, Department of Economics, University of Virginia, 114 Rouss Hall, Charlottesville, VA 22903, U.S.A.; L. A. Lillard, Department of Economics and ISR, University of Michigan, U.S.A.; L. J. Waite, Department of Sociology and NORC, University of Chicago, U.S.A.
brien@virginia.edu.
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Price-Spratlen, Townsand.
Livin' for the city: African American ethnogenesis and depression era migration.
Urban ethnogenesis is a process by which a group creates and maintains social networks and communication patterns as the basis for institutional and communal life in urban areas. Ethnogenesis is a foundation upon which most historical, urbanward migrations have been built, including the "Great Migration" of African Americans during the first half of this century. Although a period of decreased migration, the Depression was marked by sizeable movement in which nearly 10% of the total African American population moved interregionally. Ethnogenic measures such as NAACP activism, the number of community newspapers directed at African Americans, and the longevity of a chapter of the National Urban League significantly increased migration flows.
(UNITED STATES, HISTORY, URBAN COMMUNITIES, BLACKS, ETHNICITY, INTERNAL MIGRATION).
English - pp. 553-568.
T. Price-Spratlen, The Ohio State University, Department of Sociology, 300 Bricker Hall, 190 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210, U.S.A.
TPS+@osu.edu.
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