Suchergebnisse

In this article, data on the association between the educational levels of spouses for 63 countries are analyzed to gain insight in the tendency towards social closure among the educational elites of these countries. The results show that in all of the countries individuals with a high educational level tend to marry within their own educational group, but that the strength of this tendency differs considerably among the countries, In the second part of the article, these differences among countries are explained in terms of the level of economic development, the degree of political democracy, the dominant religion, and the size of the educational elites. In countries with higher levels of economic development, in Protestant countries, in countries with an intermediate level of democracy, and in countries with larger educational elites, the tendency to marry within the own group among the higher educated is lower than in other countries. Besides differences among countries, also trends within countries are studied. The results of this analysis indicate that in the decades after World War II in most of the countries the openness of the educational elite has increased.

Zsfassung in engl. Sprache

AbstractThe Human Development Index is the world's most famous indicator of the level of development of societies. A disadvantage of this index is however that only national values are available, whereas within many countries huge subnational variation in development exists. We therefore have developed the Subnational Human Development Index (SHDI), which shows within‐country variation in human development across the globe. Covering more than 1,600 regions within 161 countries, the SHDI and its underlying dimension indices provide a 10 times higher resolution picture of human development than previously available. The newly observed within‐country variation is particularly strong in low‐ and middle‐developed countries. Education disparities explain most SHDI inequality within low‐developed countries, and standard of living differences are most important within the more highly developed ones. Strong convergence forces operating both across and within countries have compensated the inequality enhancing force of population growth. These changes will shape the twenty‐first century agenda of scientists and policy‐makers concerned with global distributive justice.

We study the determinants of educational participation and gender differences in education for young children in six Arab countries: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. Although these countries have made much progress in getting young children into school, school dropout after age 11 was still very high, and in the rural areas there were major gender differences in participation. In cities of most of these countries (except Yemen) gender differences have almost disappeared. Multivariate analyses show that similar household-level factors (e.g. wealth, education, number of siblings) as those in the West play a role, but that their importance relative to context factors is much less. For young rural girls, only 33 per cent of the variation in participation is explained by household-level factors. For older and urban girls and for boys this is more, but still substantially less than in the West. Strengthening the position of rural mothers and improving the educational infrastructure seem particularly important for reducing gender differences.

This study examines the relationship between women's family planning outcomes and primary school enrollment among their 8‐11‐year‐old children. We analyze household‐ and wider‐context‐level data for 103,000 children in 30 sub‐Saharan African countries. Negative associations with school enrollment are found for those who have short preceding or succeeding birth intervals, a young sibling, or a mother who is pregnant. These findings remain unchanged after controlling for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Analysis of interaction effects shows that many associations with family planning outcomes depend on the context in which the household is living, revealing the importance of a situation‐specific approach. Findings indicate that helping families improve their pregnancy planning will increase children's schooling opportunities and lead to more effective use of household and community resources.

AbstractCurrent models inadequately address the role of information transfer in explaining the slow fertility decline in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) in the 1990s and 2000s. We posit that an important reason for this slow decline was the high level of social isolation of the rural population in the region, as a result of which new ideas regarding fertility had difficulty reaching them. Applying Poisson regression to survey data on 180,000 women across 25 SSA countries spanning 1995–2010, we find clear associations of travel distance to urban areas and TV ownership with desired and actual fertility. Interaction analyses reveal a compensatory relationship between distance and TV ownership, with the effect of distance almost disappearing for households with a TV and the effect of TV disappearing for households close to urban areas. The role of information access is further stressed by the finding that socioeconomic factors, while highly significant overall, offer limited explanatory value for women living at great distance from urban centres or without TV access. If information transfer is indeed as important as our findings suggest, the increasing availability of smartphones and social media in rural SSA might lead to a faster fertility decline in the region than foreseen by the latest UN population estimates.

We explore the role of paid work in women's empowerment in Turkey by analyzing the variation in employment status and occupational position of Turkish women according to socio-economic and geographic background characteristics, characteristics of their marriage, and gender role attitudes. Being employed is seen as a major instrument in making women less dependent on their families and freeing them from the suppressing influence of patriarchal ideologies. However, only 35% of married women are gainfully employed and half of them work as (family) farm workers. Women engaged in the formal economy are more highly educated, have husbands with higher occupations, have fewer children, live in the West and urban areas, are less suppressed by their families and have less traditional gender role attitudes. Not speaking Turkish is a major obstacle to economic independency for ethnic women. Findings basically support the U-curve hypothesis which predicts that with increasing modernization female employment first decreases and then increases. However, the effects of modernization are overshadowed by the strong influence of patriarchal ideology that tends to confine Turkish women to the private domain. The major way out of the web of patriarchal restrictions seems to be via education. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We study family background effects on participation in primary and secondary education of children in Turkey using large representative data sets. Educational participation, especially of girls, is found to be still a major concern, with non-enrollment being especially high in the countryside and the eastern part of the country. Parental education, number of siblings, household income, occupation of the father, traditionality of the mother and the mother's ability to speak Turkish are major factors affecting participation. For primary participation of girls, having a mother who has completed primary education and who can speak Turkish is most significant. Traditional gender role attitudes of the mother reduce the girl's chances to get secondary education. For participation of boys, the economic situation of the household is important. Findings indicate that a key role is played by the mothers of the children who are out of school. Reaching this group of mostly illiterate and traditional women is a major challenge for policy makers wanting to improve the situation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International audience ; STUDY QUESTION How many twins are born in human populations and how has this changed over recent decades? SUMMARY ANSWER Since the 1980s, the global twinning rate has increased by a third, from 9.1 to 12.0 twin deliveries per 1000 deliveries, to about 1.6 million twin pairs each year. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY It was already known that in the 1980s natural twinning rates were low in (East) Asia and South America, at an intermediate level in Europe and North America, and high in many African countries. It was also known that in recent decades, twinning rates have been increasing in the wealthier parts of our world as a result of the rise in medically assisted reproduction (MAR) and delayed childbearing. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION We have brought together all information on national twinning rates available from statistical offices, demographic research institutes, individual survey data and the medical literature for the 1980–1985 and the 2010–2015 periods. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS For 165 countries, covering over 99% of the global population, we were able to collect or estimate twinning rates for the 2010–2015 period. For 112 countries, we were also able to obtain twinning rates for 1980–1985. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Substantial increases in twinning rates were observed in many countries in Europe, North America and Asia. For 74 out of 112 countries the increase was more than 10%. Africa is still the continent with highest twinning rates, but Europe, North America and Oceania are catching up rapidly. Asia and Africa are currently home to 80% of all twin deliveries in the world.LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION For some countries, data were derived from reports and papers based on hospital registrations which are less representative for the country as a whole than data based on public administrations and national surveys. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The absolute and relative number of twins for the world as a whole is peaking at an unprecedented level. An important reason for this is the tremendous increase in medically assisted reproduction in recent decades. This is highly relevant, as twin deliveries are associated with higher infant and child mortality rates and increased complications for mother and child during pregnancy and during and after delivery. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) The contribution of CM was partially supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant No 681546, FAMSIZEMATTERS), Nuffield College, and the Leverhulme Trust. The contribution of GP was partially supported by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (grant No ANR-18-CE36-0007-07). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The twinning rate has increased dramatically over the last four decades in developed countries. Two main factors account for this increase: delayed childbearing, as older women tend to have twins more frequently than younger ones, and the expansion of medically assisted reproduction (MAR), which carries an increased probability of multiple births. Using civil registration data, we estimate the share of the increase in twinning rates attributable to the rise in the age at childbearing and to MAR. The effect of MAR is estimated to be about three times as important as the effect of delayed childbearing. Negative health outcomes associated with multiple births and the cost of MAR have raised concerns. We find that in one‐quarter of developed countries with the relevant data, the twinning rate reached a plateau around the early 2000s and decreased thereafter. We examine the reasons for this reversal, in particular changes in MAR policies and practices.