Delimiting family in syntheses of research on childhood chronic conditions and family life

Synthesis of family research presents unique challenges to investigators who must delimit what will be included as a family study in the proposed review. In this paper, the authors discuss the conceptual and pragmatic challenges of conducting systematic reviews of the literature on the intersection between family life and childhood chronic conditions. A proposed framework for delimiting the family domain of interest is presented. The framework addresses both topical salience and level of relevance and provides direction to future researchers, with the goal of supporting the overall quality of family research synthesis efforts. For users of synthesis studies, knowledge of how investigators conceptualize the boundaries of family research is important contextual information for understanding the limits and applicability of the results.

English historical demography and the nuptiality conundrum: new perspectives

"In the last decade, nuptiality has been placed at the centre of the English demographic regime in the long eighteenth-century. Proto-industrial areas in particular are increasingly seen to have experienced substantial decline in the female age at first marriage during this period, helping to fuel substantial population growth. This article uses family reconstitution and other data to question the uniformity of this experience and to suggest new avenues of interpretation rather than simply observation. For Calverley in West Yorkshire, England, female marriage ages remained stable throughout the proto-industrialisation process. More significantly, the distribution of marriage ages around the mean was much narrower than similar measures elsewhere. The article suggests that kinship, a deep sentimental and practical attachment to land, and an early retirement system lay behind this experience."

One-parent families in Europe: a review

"One parent families form about 10-15 percent of all families in most industrialized countries. This review examines a selected number of European studies related to one-parent families completed during the 1985-1992 period. The major findings are presented, and implications for further research are included."

[Definitive migration to France and family constitution]

Data from a survey of 383 individuals, either aliens or naturalized citizens, aged 45-69 residing in France in 1981 are used to examine the relationship between migration and the family life cycle. The results indicate that "marriage, which is an obstacle to migration for women born before 1915, actually favours migration in later generations. Furthermore, the [fertility] of naturalized citizens (2.64 children per woman) is shown to be markedly lower than that of foreigners (3.67) and approaches the national level of that period (2.60) in a few years only." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

[Families in France and Sweden: the search for new models]

"Examination of the evolution of family models in France and Sweden reveals many similar trends: increase in the divorce rate, fall in marriage and fertility rates, decrease in the size of the average family, increase in the number of single parent families, diversity of rearranged households, etc. However, the authors stress the extent to which the historical and ideological context of this evolution is different in the two countries. Whereas new conjugal models are diffused rapidly in Sweden without provoking reactions of rejection, a certain ideology in France recommends an ideal of conjugal stability and demands a policy openly favouring an increased birth rate. The Swedes find contraception and abortion natural whereas they are still the subject of impassioned debates in France. The attitude to children is very different in the two countries. However, in both cases, although the evolution of family ties still has an experimental aspect it seems sufficiently radical to make it necessary to rethink the nature of social ties in general." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

[New perspectives in life-event history analysis]

"In the last decade, life-event history analysis, also called failure time data analysis or survival analysis, has been widely adopted by demographers. This methodology in demography allows [us] to overcome major hurdles especially when analyzing longitudinal survey data. This paper describes the new perspectives opened to research in that field, and is illustrated by new results and examples of research projects. The authors concentrate on four issues: the analysis of incorrect and imperfect data, the analysis based on more complex data and lastly the study of interaction between phenomena." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

[Family structure, parental support, and leaving home among young Americans in the twentieth century]

"This paper examines the effects of childhood family structure on patterns of home leaving (route and timing). The analysis uses data from the [U.S.] National Survey of Families and Households.... Family disruption is linked with leaving home via all routes except college attendance.... We interpret the results as indicating the ways the parental home provides the resources needed for a successful launching into adult independence or prompts leaving home either too early, or to new living arrangements likely to make establishing a stable independent adult role set more difficult." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

The contribution of existing sources to the dating of events: a survey in Mali's Bwa country

"We exploited the sources of information already existing in Mali's Bwa country in order to facilitate the dating of biographical events. Their contribution was multiple: they gave an exact date for a substantial number of births (25%), they provided dating landmarks within the biographies (in two thirds of birth histories, at least one birth could thus be pinpointed), and they made it possible to construct sets of dating references at the family level (lineage calendars). Based on the same principle of chronological classification as the historical calendar, the lineage calendar improves the method by replacing public events by family events with which the respondents are more familiar (births and deaths of kin)."

Residential mobility in France and in Paris since 1945: the history of a cohort

Using data from two retrospective surveys carried out in France in 1981 and 1986, the authors "reconstitute the residential history of a cohort and...measure the differences [in migration histories] between Paris and the whole of France.... We shall attempt to reconstruct the residential histories of these individuals, by analysing firstly the stage when they left their parents to set up their first independent home, and secondly mobility throughout their life course, paying particular attention to the extension of home ownership in this cohort."

[A program of research on biocultural dynamics]

"The objective of the research program presented in this note is to analyse the interrelations between biological and social factors in the process of demographic renewal. Population registers of various communities, among them those of Saint-Barthelemy (French Antilles) and Ile-aux-Coudres (Quebec), are used. The genealogies which were obtained from these registers contribute to the study of genetical epidemiology. The research program also includes the identification of social factors which may have contributed to the biological structure of the communities under study." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

[Nuptiality and fertility differentials. Behavioral changes in the last three centuries. The case of Sul do Pico (Azores)]

"Through the application of...'parish reconstitution' differentials in demographic conducts are analysed. Those behaviours are related with marriage rate and fertility manifested in the population of Sul do Pico (Azores) during the last 3 centuries. Results show the existence of differences between 'the new' and 'the old' rural areas." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND FRE AND SPA)

Biological aspects of menopause: across the lifespan

"This review outlines the biological basics of menopause and then places menopause within the context of a dynamic lifespan. The basic tenets of the lifespan approach maintain that, for each individual, aging and development are lifelong processes from birth to death; biological, psychological, and sociocultural trajectories interweave across the life course; the entire lifespan serves as a frame of reference for understanding particular events or transitions; and the life course can be affected by environmental change.... This review also points to the gap between population-level studies of menopause and studies carried out at the biochemical, cellular, or organ systems level. Filling this gap...offers the most interesting directions for future anthropological research."

[A model for analyzing ascending genealogies]

"This paper presents a model of ascending genealogies, with the definition and investigation of the functions allowing for the study of these genealogies as well as with the main algorithms used in operationalizing the model on a micro-computer. Examples of the type of results one may obtain with this model are provided; they concern file outputs as well as the computation of consanguinity and completeness coefficients." The examples provided concern the island of Saint Barthelemy, Guadeloupe. (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

[The household and the small family, a methodological illusion of statistics and survey demography]

The authors question the use of the concept of "households" in demographic analyses of the family. "Designed with reference to the Western family, is the concept still operational in radically different contexts, and in particular where extended families are dominant? The authors reply that it might be as long as it is handled with caution, knowledge of its limits and only as a practical collection concept. Wanting to force it to coincide with a social reality leads to methodological illusion." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

Birth control and its determinants

"The article presents the results of the three family [sample] surveys [in Poland]: 'Newlyweds Survey 1985', 'Family Survey 1987'...and 'Determinants and Consequences of Divorces'.... The subject of this article is: the methods of birth control which were used during married life, their moral evaluation and opinions about abortion.... This article indicates the influence of an unhappy marriage and of different phases of family life on the attitudes and opinions about birth control."

The event history approach in demography

"In the present paper, we shall examine...changes in the field of demography, by following the progression from period analysis to cohort analysis. We shall discuss the hypotheses underlying each of these approaches and show how their distance from actual human behaviour could lead to mistaken or incomplete conclusions. We shall then show how event history analysis can solve these problems and we shall define the hypotheses implied by this new approach. Finally, we shall come back to the complimentarity of the different social sciences."

Understanding the living arrangements of Latino immigrants: a life course approach

"Using data from the 1990 [U.S.] Panel Study of Income Dynamics Latino Sample, this study examines three competing hypotheses for understanding extended family living among Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrants. The findings indicate no significant relationship between living with extended kin and cultural indicators--such as English fluency--or economic factors--such as employment and income. Rather, the data support a life course explanation. Extended family living arrangements among Latino immigrants represent a resource generating strategy for caring for young children and older adults."

[The family environment of children in France and Canada]

"Two fundamental changes have influenced family demographics in both France and Canada over the past 25 years: the rise in the number of births to unmarried parents and the rapid growth in the proportion of children separated from one parent or another before they reach adulthood. The impact of these changes on the family life of children must, however, be seen in perspective. Parents not married at the time of the child's birth nevertheless tend to live together. As well, the separation of birth parents allows for the formation of new families, giving the child a stepmother or stepfather and step-siblings. International or interregional comparisons give a further dimension to these phenomena; for example, Quebec, France and the rest of Canada rank in that order for the frequency of births outside marriage, while Quebec and the rest of Canada come ahead of France with a higher frequency of separations." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

Counterurbanization: spatial division of labour and regional life-cycles in Canada

"After a discussion of major concepts of counterurbanization, a narrow definition is proposed. Various demographic and socio-economic dimensions are analysed at different scales with special regard to the Canadian heartland. The basic hypothesis suggests a temporary weakening of urban growth dynamics: decentralization, thus, is a result of locational adjustment strategies, emerging during revolutions in basic technology. The corresponding 'filtering down' processes create a selective, interregional spread of labour. However, shift analytical time series indicate that the development capacity of core regions oscillates in a life-cyclical rhythm. Counterurbanization is expected to fade out with regional adjustment to basic technological transformation."

Migration and the family: the female perspective

"This article shows that a family perspective is especially important for the analysis of female migration because: (1) women are major participants in 'family migration' as defined by governments and, although they benefit from family reunification provisions, they are also constrained by them; (2) migrant women are important economic actors and their participation in economic activity is closely related to the needs of their families, so that the choices that migrant women make regarding work cannot be understood without taking into account the situation of their families and women's roles within them; (3) women are increasingly becoming migrant workers in order to improve the economic status of their families; and (4) women rely on their families to provide various types of support that both make migration possible and condition its outcome. A review of the literature provides evidence supporting each of these observations."

Migration and marriage in the life course: a method for studying synchronized events

"On the basis of a West German sample of residence histories that is representative of three birth cohorts, of which the one born in 1939-41 is analysed, log-linear techniques were applied to separate the effects of being married, and of getting married, on migration rates. Results show that the dependence of short and long distance moves on age substantially [diminishes] if marriage is considered as a synchronization variable. Moreover, the common finding that married persons move less than the unmarried is reversed at short distances if marriage is taken into account as an event which influences the probability of another (event dependence)." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

[Not Available]

Dans un article important publié en 1969, Dupâquier et Lachiver ont proposé une nouvelle technique visant à mesurer la diffusion du contrôle des naissances dans les populations anciennes en utilisant des données de reconstitution des familles. On a parfois considéré leur approche comme un substitut ou un complément à la technique classique — mise au point par L. Henry — qui consistait à détecter la restriction volontaire des naissances en examinant l'âge de la mère à la naissance de son dernier enfant et la forme de la courbe de fécondité légitime.

Time, age, and the transition to retirement: new evidence on life-course flexibility?

The past twenty-five years have been dramatic changes in the transition to retirement. This article considers an overlooked set of social processes--informal age structuring--within the context of these changes. Data are drawn from a random sample of 319 adults from the Chicago area. For about half of the respondents, age was considered an irrelevant dimension for both men's and women's retirement. Those respondents who found age relevant cited deadlines that were clustered not only around the critical points at which researchers have observed regularity in retirement patterns, but they also included the lower junctures that are emerging as part of the shift toward earlier retirement. These deadlines most often marked the place of retirement relative to a larger set of work transitions, or they budgeted enough time to pursue developmental opportunities at the end of life. However, most respondents said there were no serious consequences for retiring late. Important patterns also emerged across the background characteristics of our respondents. These findings feed into several provocative debates that relate time and age to models of life-course flexibility or rigidity.

Contraceptive failure rates: new estimates from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth

CONTEXT

Unintended pregnancy remains a major public health concern in the United States. Information on pregnancy rates among contraceptive users is needed to guide medical professionals' recommendations and individuals' choices of contraceptive methods.

METHODS

Data were taken from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the 1994-1995 Abortion Patient Survey (APS). Hazards models were used to estimate method-specific contraceptive failure rates during the first six months and during the first year of contraceptive use for all U.S. women. In addition, rates were corrected to take into account the underreporting of induced abortion in the NSFG. Corrected 12-month failure rates were also estimated for subgroups of women by age, union status, poverty level, race or ethnicity, and religion.

RESULTS

When contraceptive methods are ranked by effectiveness over the first 12 months of use (corrected for abortion underreporting), the implant and injectables have the lowest failure rates (2-3%), followed by the pill (8%), the diaphragm and the cervical cap (12%), the male condom (14%), periodic abstinence (21%), withdrawal (24%) and spermicides (26%). In general, failure rates are highest among cohabiting and other unmarried women, among those with an annual family income below 200% of the federal poverty level, among black and Hispanic women, among adolescents and among women in their 20s. For example, adolescent women who are not married but are cohabiting experience a failure rate of about 31% in the first year of contraceptive use, while the 12-month failure rate among married women aged 30 and older is only 7%. Black women have a contraceptive failure rate of about 19%, and this rate does not vary by family income; in contrast, overall 12-month rates are lower among Hispanic women (15%) and white women (10%), but vary by income, with poorer women having substantially greater failure rates than more affluent women.

CONCLUSIONS

Levels of contraceptive failure vary widely by method, as well as by personal and background characteristics. Income's strong influence on contraceptive failure suggests that access barriers and the general disadvantage associated with poverty seriously impede effective contraceptive practice in the United States.

Is the relationship between fertility of parents and children really weak?

The relationship between fertility of parents and children has been designated as "weak" by most investigators. This paper reviews the evidence over the past century and argues that, even allowing for problems with available data sources, the relationship was probably close to zero for pre-transitional populations. However, over time, the relationship has tended to become more substantial and is now of a similar order of magnitude in developed countries as other widely used explanatory variables. Possible mechanisms for the observed relationship are discussed, especially the roles of socialization and inherited factors. The types of data used are compared to the scientific questions posed, and the limitations of the common comparison of married-mother/married-daughter pairs are considered. Finally, some evidence from recent large-scale surveys in Britain and the United States is presented to show changes over recent periods and the relative effects of sibship size of fathers and mothers.

Things ain't what they used to be! Demography, mental cohorts, morality and values in post-war Australia

This is the "presidential address to the Ninth Biennial Conference of the Australian Population Association, Brisbane, 30 September 1998.... I propose to look back 50 or so years, at a period of demographic change in Australia that I have found intensely interesting, and that it is hard to imagine will be rivalled in extent or profoundness over the next half century." Aspects considered include morality and values--demographic evidence of change; broad changes in nuptiality and fertility; the sexual revolution; contraception; and life cycle changes.