International Migration and Modern Contraceptive Use: A Research Note on African Migrants to France

This research note presents a multisited analysis of migration and contraceptive use by standardizing and integrating a sample of African migrants in France from six West and Central African countries in the Trajectoires et Origines survey with a sample of women living in the same six African countries in the Demographic and Health Surveys. Descriptive analyses indicate that the contraceptive use of migrants more closely aligns with that of native French women than with that of women from origin countries. In particular, migrants report dramatically higher use of long-acting reversible contraceptives and short-acting hormonal methods and lower use of traditional methods than do women in the countries of origin. Although migrants differ from women in the countries of origin on observed characteristics, including education and family background, reweighting women in the origin countries to resemble migrants on these characteristics does little to explain differences in contraceptive use between the groups. Given that contraceptive use is an important proximate determinant of fertility, our results suggest that contraceptive use should feature more prominently in the dominant demographic paradigms of migrant fertility.

The Role of Proximate Determinants and Distal Variables On Recent Fertility in Dabat Health and Demographic Surveillance System Site, Northwest Ethiopia: A Mediation Analysis

Background In Ethiopia, previous studies have explored the role of the proximate determinants for recent fertility decline at national and regional levels. However, none of these studies have examined the role of socioeconomic factors on the observed fertility decline through these proximate variables. This study aimed to estimate the effects of proximate determinants of fertility and the contribution of distal variables in recent fertility in Dabat Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, northwest Ethiopia. Methods A community based cross-sectional survey was carried out in 2020 among 1649 women of reproductive age group. Data were collected using structured and interviewer administered questionnaire. Generalized structural equation model was employed for the mediation analysis to estimate the relationships among distal and mediating variables with outcome variable, children ever born, simultaneously. A difference approach was used to test whether the effects of predictor variables were mediated. Results The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for the three years preceding the survey was estimated at 3.4 children per woman. The Age Specific Fertility Rate (ASFR) in the study area reached its peak in the age group of 25–29 with 191 children per 1000 women. Among the proximate determinants, only marriage was a significant proximate determinant of recent fertility. The probability of having birth was more than fivefold higher among currently married women (IRR = 5.6 with a P-value = 0.000) than their unmarried counterparts. Age of women, occupation of women, household wealth status, ideal number of children, and experiencing child death had a significant total effect on recent fertility that were decomposed to direct and indirect or mediated effects of variables. Conclusion Marriage was the only proximate determinant that stood out as a significant mediated variable through which the distal variables affected fertility. Findings also clearly indicated that female participation in non-agricultural occupation affected the recent fertility. Hence, women's level of employment should be raised to increase their economic independence that will reduce the desirability of early marriage which in turn lower the number of children. In addition, the prevailing strategies on family planning programs should be improved to enhance the prevalence of contraceptive use among married women that will accelerate the current fertility transition.

Three Decades of Lowest-low Fertility in Spain, 1991 – 2018

There are plenty of theories on low fertility, but few studies have aimed to measure and quantify the relative importance of various obstacles to fertility for explaining differences between desired and actual fertility. We aim to fill this gap by using data from the 2018 Fertility Survey (14,556 women and 2.619 men) for Spain, a country with one of the lowest levels of fertility in the world. Data on ideal family size, intended fertility, and reported reasons for not yet having (more) children allow us to estimate the extent of unrealized fertility as well as the reported relative importance of economic, health, and partnership related reasons for unrealized fertility. Results confirm that observed fertility is clearly below desired fertility in Spain. Material reasons - associated with job insecurity, instability, economic resources - are the main reported reasons why women and men do not have the desired number of children. These reasons are followed by those related to partnership (not having a stable partner), and health (difficulties in conceiving). Estimates based on actual fertility, employment, and partnerships shows that having a stable partner between the ages of 25 and 35 is a proximate determinant of the transition to the first child.

Proximate Determinant of Adolescents Fertility in Central Java

Adolescent fertility is an important issue in terms of health and social care due to its relation to morbidity and mortality of mothers and children. The 2017 IDHS provided data regarding the percentage of women aged 15-19 who already became mothers or pregnant with their first child according to background characteristics. The 2017 IDHS results showed 7 percent of women aged 15-19 were mothers: 5 percent had given birth and 2 percent were pregnant with their first child. This study used a quantitative secondary data analysis approach. The secondary data used were the results of the Central Java IDHS 2017. The population of this study was all adolescent girls aged 15-19 years in Central Java. The unit analysis in the study were women of childbearing age which were 15-19 years from the analysis unit of Central Java IDHS in 2017 with a total sample of 4,560 respondents. From the results of the study, we noted that factors related to adolescent fertility in Central Java were age, education, use of contraception, marital status, status of living with a partner, and practice of sexual relations. Factors which were not related to adolescent fertility in Central Java were occupation, wealth, type of residential area, insurance ownership, duration of abstinence, partner's age, partner's level of education, and partner's occupation.

Why Does China Invest So Much?

China has had a remarkably high ratio of investment to output ever since economic reform began in 1978, surpassing almost all other economies. This is an important proximate determinant of China's high growth rate. This paper gathers together the available evidence to explain why investment is so high: factors both on the demand and on the supply side, and in the latter case the availability of both resources and funds. It analyzes the rate of return on capital and its evolution, and the factors that have kept it up. It draws on the literature to explain the high saving rate, and considers why the imperfect capital market and institutional deficiencies have not constrained investment. The state-owned and private sectors are treated separately because of their different objectives, behavior, and funding.

Parental effort of American kestrels: the role of variation in brood size

Brood size has the potential to determine the allocation of resources between parents and offspring, as well as influence the relative contributions of each sex to parental effort. However, it is unclear whether brood size is the proximate determinant of parental effort, or conversely whether parental effort is the proximate factor to which brood size is adjusted. If brood size determines parental effort, then theory suggests that parental effort should vary with experimental changes in brood size. In contrast, if parental effort determines brood size, then parental effort is expected to be independent of experimental variation in brood size. To distinguish between these hypotheses, we experimentally reduced brood sizes of American kestrels (Falco sparverius). Our results suggest that male parents responded to brood-size variation and adjusted their provisioning behaviour accordingly. Conversely, female parents did not adjust provisioning in response to brood size, and as a result, offspring in reduced broods received more food on a per-nestling basis. However, condition and survival of offspring were similar in reduced broods and control young, which may have been the result of larger food requirements of small broods, owing to increased thermoregulatory costs compared with control broods. Female parents with reduced broods also did not brood offspring more often, further suggesting that females do not respond to variation in brood size. We conclude that the proximate determinants of parental effort are sex-specific in American kestrels: for males, brood size determines behaviour, whereas for females, behaviour may be a proximate factor determining brood size.

COITUS, THE PROXIMATE DETERMINANT OF CONCEPTION: INTER-COUNTRY VARIANCE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

There is a general consensus in the literature that fertility differences between populations can be accounted for by differences in just four key proximate determinants: nuptiality, the postpartum non-susceptible period, contraception and abortion. Natural fecundibility is generally assumed to be constant between populations. This paper puts the theoretical and empirical case for a re-evaluation of that assumption, drawing on the under-utilized data on sexual activity collected in the Demographic Health Surveys (DHSs). Using data for married women in nine African countries, the analysis finds substantial population level differences in mean monthly coital frequency, which, if accurate, suggest an important demographic effect. There is a clear regional patterning to these differences, with levels of activity considerably lower among women in the West African populations included in the study than those from East and southern Africa. For West Africa in particular the data indicate the normality of exceptionally long periods of very infrequent or no intercourse by married women outside the period of postpartum abstinence. The findings challenge prevailing presumptions concerning susceptibility to pregnancy in marriage on which statistics for unmet need for family planning are derived. While doubts are raised over the precision of the sexual activity data used, the paper argues for the need for a greater effort to operationalize the ‘proximate determinant of conception’, not only for more accurate fertility modelling, but also as a planning tool for a more sensitive provision of family planning services in Africa.