Bali Ram

The effects of harassment and victimization on self-rated health and mental health among Canadian adolescents

Using 1996/1997 to 2000/2001 data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, this paper examines the effects of harassment on self-rated and mental health status among Canadian adolescents aged 16-17 years. Forty-six percent of the children experienced harassment and victimization (verbal aggression, threat, and physical harm/assault) at school and 40% outside of school. Harassment at school, rather than otherwise, was associated with poor health status and higher levels of depression even when previous health conditions and socio-demographic variables were held constant. The relationship between harassment and mental health is particularly pronounced among girls, immigrant children and those living in single-parent households. Given the sizable proportion of adolescents as victims of harassment at school and its significant relationship with both health status and depression, the issue warrants serious public health attention through school-based intervention programs.

Sex differences in mortality as a social indicator.

Using a macro-sociological model, this paper argues that the status of women is an important determinant of sex mortality differences. This is done first by examining data from India which is known to have an excessively high level of female mortality. The examination is further extended by a pooled cross-section and time series analysis of the excess of female life expectancy over male life expectancy for 83 countries.

New Estimates of Aboriginal Fertility, 1966-1971 to 1996-2001

Using census data on children in families, this paper estimates various fertility measures for the total aboriginal population and four specific groups, North American Indians, Registered Indians, Metis, and Inuit. The “own-children” procedure is used for deriving the number of births by the age of the mother during specific years preceding the census. The major focus of the paper is on the trends of total fertility rate and the convergence of age patterns between various subgroups over the past 30 years. Strengths and limitations of the method are also discussed.

Enduring Effects of Women's Early Employment Experiences on Child-spacing: The Canadian Evidence

This study examines the effects of early work experiences on child-spacing among Canadian women, with data from the 1984 Family History Survey conducted by Statistics Canada. The analyses, based on life-table and proportional hazards models, show that longer and less interrupted early work experiences are associated with longer birth intervals, and that these effects tend to persist throughout the childbearing years. The study further shows that these effects are greater on the third birth interval than on the second, and that they are more pronounced among highly educated than among less educated women.

Emerging patterns of child-spacing in Canada.

This study used data from the 1984 Family History Survey conducted by Statistics Canada to examine recent trends and patterns of child-spacing among currently married women. Life table and proportional hazards estimates show that Canadian women, particularly those in younger age groups with higher education and longer work experience, start having children late, but have subsequent children rather quickly. This suggests that such women tend to complete childbearing within a compressed time period.

Fertility decline and social change: new trends and challenges

This article presents an overview of recent fertility declines and their effects on social change in both industrialized and industrializing countries. The focus is primarily on the levels and age patterns of fertility, which influence social change through three major mechanisms, reductions in population growth, modifications in age structure, and changes in family structure. Some future prospects are also discussed, especially in the view of the viability of immigration as a solution to population stability, graying of the industrialized world, intergenerational support, and loneliness.

Regional-sub-cultural explanations of black fertility in the United States.

Summary This paper re-examines the relevance of the hypothesis concerning the Southern sub-culture and black fertility in the United States. According to zero-order correlation analysis, Southern-born blacks show higher fertility than those born in other regions. But a dummy-variable regression technique applied to the data from the 1970 public-use sample indicates that the Southern origin - independent of other factors-is not different from other regions. Southern birth has the effect of increasing black fertility, but much less so than birth in the North Central region. Southern blacks show higher fertility because of their lower socio-economic background. It is concluded that geographical regions in the United States have little or no cultural meaning in explaining reproductive behaviour.

Educational Selectivity of Out-migration in Canada: 1976-1981 to 1996-2001

The major objective of this paper is to show that migrants are positively selected whether they are driven by economic factors or by non-economic factors, and whether they are motivated by pull factors or push factors. Using “five-year migration data” from the 1981 to 2001 censuses of Canada, we find that the education gradient of out-migration is apparent in every region, with the highly educated being more mobile than the less educated. However, the pattern is most pronounced in the Atlantic region, Quebec, and Manitoba/Saskatchewan, the regions experiencing poorer economic conditions and persistent net losses through migration. The three high-income provinces, Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia not only experience lower overall net losses, but are also less likely to lose their better educated persons—even during bad economic times. Quebec emerges as a special case where economic as well as linguistic-political factors play an important role in governing the out-migration patterns of the better educated, particularly those belonging to the non-Francophone group.

Reproduction: the Canadian family in transition

3 trends suggest that the reproductive function of the Canadian family is in transition. 1st, fertility has fallen and remains below the replacement level. In 1985, the total fertility rate was 1.67, the lowest in 60 years. Since 1971, it has not risen above 2.1 births/woman, the replacement level. 2nd, an increasing proportion of women are spending a larger part of their lives without having any children. In the 1981 census, 22% of ever-married women between 15 and 44 years had not yet borne children, compared with only 14% recorded in the 1961 census. While the proportion of women who are childless at the end of their reproductive years has risen only slightly, a larger number of women are postponing having children even as the risk of becoming sterile in the interim becomes greater. The combined effect of postponing both marriage and childbearing will most probably be to increase the proportion of women remaining without children. The 3rd trend is the increasing proportion of women who are having children without getting married. Among the consequences of premarital pregnancy are the stress on single mothers, the need for social assistance, the cost of maintenance programs, and the need for more child care. These changes in attitude toward marriage and family formation could have major implications for individuals and society. A fertility rate below replacement level could be stressful for society, resulting in population decline, and changes in age structure that could negatively affect the economy.

Does It Pay to Migrate? The Canadian Evidence

An analysis of the 1991 and 1996 Census data indicated that on average people who moved out of economically less affluent provinces showed higher incomes than those who were left behind. However, persons who moved out of wealthier provinces did not do as well as those who stayed. In fact, their incomes were lower than non-migrants. According to the 1996 Census, for example, the age-education adjusted income of migrants from Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia was about 10 to 13% lower than non-migrants in those provinces, whereas the corresponding income was about 7 to 13% higher for migrants from Atlantic Provinces. Similarly, people who moved into economically less resourceful provinces had higher incomes than non-migrants, while inmigrants into affluent provinces did worse than those who stayed in those provinces.