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Fertility Desires (fertility + desire)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences100%

Selected Abstracts

On the Politics and Practice of Muslim Fertility

MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2006
Jennifer Johnson-Hanks
Recent popular works have represented Muslim fertility as dangerously high, both a cause and consequence of religious fundamentalism. This article uses comparative, statistical methods to show that this representation is empirically wrong, at least in West Africa. Although religion strongly inflects reproductive practice, its effects are not constant across different communities. In West African countries with Muslim majorities, Muslim fertility is lower than that of their non-Muslim conationals; in countries where Muslims are in the minority, their apparently higher reproductive rates converge to those of the majority when levels of education and urban residence are taken into account. A similar pattern holds for infant mortality. By contrast, in all seven countries, Muslim women are more likely to report that their most recent child was wanted. The article concludes with a discussion of the relationship between autonomy and fertility desires. [source]

Diversity in fertility patterns in Guatemala

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 6 2006
Sofie De Broe
Abstract This study investigates urban and rural fertility trends in Guatemala up to 2002. It also aims to establish, using the theory of diffusion as its theoretical framework, the extent to which ethnicity and ethnic diversity are associated with geographical patterns in local-level fertility after controlling for socio-economic indicators. Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 1987, 1995,96 and 1998,99, the National Maternal and Child Health Survey of 2002 and the Census of 2002 were used. P/F ratios were calculated and used as an analytical tool and quality control measure of the data in order to establish the timing of changes in fertility patterns as measured by age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) based on exact exposure in four-year periods from 1972 to 2002. Finally, the 2002 census data were used to analyse and model fertility at the municipio- level using ordinary least squares regression. The results suggest a steady but very slow decline in fertility from 1972 until the mid-1990s. Both the P/F ratios and ASFRs calculated using the Maternal and Child Health Survey and Census of 2002 show a sharp decline in fertility since 1998. The regression results for the census data suggest an independent and significant effect of ,proportion of indigenous people' and an almost significant effect of ethnic diversity on fertility at the municipio -level. The very slow decline in fertility in Guatemala until fairly recently can be attributed to the fact that Guatemala has been lagging behind in terms of socio-economic development and the additional challenge of having a culturally very diverse and segregated population, preventing the spread of modern reproductive ideas and behaviour. The accelerated fertility decline since the end of the 1990s seems likely to be associated with the widespread availability and increased uptake of family planning following declining fertility desires among its indigenous population. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Fertility transition in Ghana: looking back and looking forward

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 6 2006
Samuel Agyei-Mensah
Abstract It is widely accepted that while the fertility transition is underway in sub-Saharan Africa, the pattern of change differs widely in both time and space. This paper examines the case of Ghana, regarded as the vanguard in the West African fertility transition. Based largely on analyses of Demographic and Health Survey data as well as localised studies, significant patterns emerge. One puzzling finding is that the increase in modern contraception usage has not kept pace with the declines in fertility. The paper suggests that this mismatch can be explained either by an increase in induced abortions, reduced exposure to sexual relations (perhaps due to HIV), or misreporting of contraceptive use. The paper also highlights the considerable geographical diversity in the ongoing fertility transition. The Northern region is still in the pre-transition stage, with little decline in fertility to date. In contrast, the pace of decline has been very rapid in the Greater Accra region. The factors underlying these patterns and the future trajectory of the fertility transition are discussed. It is argued that the fertility transition may be more leisurely in the near future than in the recent past. Among the factors working against future fertility decline are the stability in the infant mortality rate, the stall in fertility desires, and the low patronage of modern contraceptives especially in rural areas. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Spaces of silence: single parenthood and the ,normal family' in Singapore

POPULATION, SPACE AND PLACE (PREVIOUSLY:-INT JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY), Issue 1 2004
Theresa Wong
Abstract Alternative family forms have begun to emerge in the Confucian societies of East and Southeast Asia, concomitant with widespread demographic changes and new socioeconomic conditions. In Singapore, the state tends to configure ,single parents' , including divorcees, unmarried parents and widowed parents , as ,unfortunate' and constituting an unhealthy trend, in opposition to the normal, dual-parent household. This paper examines how single parents in Singapore reconfigure their definitions of the family both discursively and through practical means, in response to the ,traditional', Confucian concept of the complete family propounded by the government. Through in-depth interviews with middle-class Chinese Singaporean single mothers and fathers, this paper also explores how single parents employ strategies at two levels: in practical decisions relating to childcare; and discursively, through the articulation of remarriage and fertility desires, in which patriarchal notions of the roles of husband/wife and mother/father are embedded. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]