Frank Trovato

Marital Status and Mortality in Canada: 1951-1981

Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2445%28198911%2951%3A4%3C907%3AMSAMIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-PJournal of Marriage and the Family is currently published by National Council on Family Relations.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/NCFR.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. Formore information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgThu Jun 14 17:01:39 2007

Contribution of cause‐specific mortality to changing sex differences in life expectancy: Seven nations case study

During the last two decades some industrialized nations witnessed varying degrees of constriction in their sex gaps in overall life expectancy. We investigate this development by paying particular attention to the contributions of major causes of death to the change in the difference between 1970 and 1990. The analysis is based on the experiences of seven nations: Australia, United States, Sweden, England and Wales, Portugal, Hungary, and Japan. In the first four countries the gap has been narrowing during the last twenty years; in Hungary and Japan, the difference remains substantial and continues to expand; in Portugal the situation is characterized by a slowdown in the amount by which the sex gap is expanding over time. We apply decomposition analysis to answer the following questions: (1) What is the relative contribution of major causes of death to sex differences in average length of life within broad age categories? (2) How do the contributions of age and cause of death vary across time to either widen or narrow the sex gap in survival? (3) How do the patterns of cause contribution vary across societies?

Determinants of breastfeeding in the Philippines: a survival analysis

This study examines modern and traditional factors that may lengthen or shorten the duration of breastfeeding. Specifically, health sector, socio-economic, demographic, and supplementary food variables are analysed among a large representative sample of women in the Philippines. It is proposed that while modernisation can lead to the adoption of western behaviours, traditional cultural values can also prevail, resulting in the rejection of certain aspects of modernity. The Cox Proportional Hazards model is employed for the analysis of breastfeeding. The results show that traditional factors associated with breastfeeding (use of solid foods such as porridge and applesauce, and prenatal care by a traditional nurse/midwife) do not play a significant role in the mothers decision to continue breastfeeding. Factors associated with modernity are significant in explaining early termination of breastfeeding (respondents education, prenatal care by a medical doctor, delivery in a hospital and use of infant formula). The findings of this study suggest that health institutions and medical professionals can play a significant role in promoting breastfeeding in the Philippines; and educational campaigns that stress the benefits of lactation are important strategies for encouraging mothers to breastfeed longer.

The Interurban Mobility of the Foreign Born in Canada, 1976-81.

This study concerns itself with the relationship between nativity, language affiliation, and interurban mobility in Canada during the intercensal period 1976–81. Three hypotheses are evaluated: a) the urban/ethnic affinity thesis predicts that international immigrants share strong preferences for settling in and relocating toward large urban centers where established ethnic communities exist; b) the sociocultural explanation of mobility posits that variations in the propensity to relocate are a function of nativity and language; and c) the heterogeneity explanation predicts that interurban mobility flows ultimately serve to increase rather than decrease linguistic heterogeneity in large urban areas. A series of crosstabular and logistic regression analyses provide support for all three hypotheses. Theoretical and policy oriented implications are discussed in the context of ethnic community survival in urban Canada.

Suicide and Ethnic Factors in Canada

A neglected area of sociological investigation is the relationship between ethnic factors and suicide mortality. This paper explores this topic among immigrant-ethnic groups in Canada. Three hypotheses are evaluated: (1) the assimilation thesis, which posits that the greater the degree of social assimilation among immigrant-ethnic groups, the greater the suicide rate; (2) the ethnic community integration explanation, which predicts that ethnic groups with strong degrees of community cohesiveness share reduced odds in their incidence of suicide; and (3) the socioeconomic hypothesis, which accounts for observed differences in suicide on the basis of discrepancies in socioeconomic well-being. The results of a multiple regression analysis provide empirical support for hypotheses (1) and (2). The findings are discussed in the con text of multiculturalism and the propensities for sociocultural groups to commit suicide dur ing the processes of assimilation and adjustment to the larger society.

Sex, marital status, and suicide in Canada: 1951-1981

This analysis extends earlier research concerning the protective role of marriage in peoples lives. An important aspect of this general phenomenon pertains to the differential protection marriage engenders for the sexes. It is hypothesized that being married as opposed to unmarried entails a lower risk of suicide, and that marital status transitions from an unmarried state (e.g., single, widowed, divorced) to the married state entail a greater benefit for men than for women. This hypothesis is largely supported by an analysis of Canadian data covering four decades (from 1951 to 1981). Using a standardization procedure, it was discovered that a transition from single or widowed to married would entail a greater reduction in suicide risk for men than for women. In the case of a transition from divorced to married status, both sexes would benefit equally in reducing suicide potential. The analysis further demonstrates only weak support for the thesis that over time there would be a convergence in sex differences in the potential protective significance of marriage in reducing suicide risk.

The Relationship between Migration and the Provincial Divorce Rate in Canada, 1971 and 1978: A Reassessment.

Sustained differences among Canadian provinces in the rate of divorce have been observed for some time but few attempts have been made to provide a systematic analysis of the relevance of region and migration to divorce. This study examines the interrelationship between these variables at two times 1971 and 1978. The results concerning migration are consistent with the hypothesis that regions characterized by high rates of population mobility have high divorce rates while regions with low migration rates experience relatively low levels of family dissolution. The results also indicate persisting differences among provinces in divorce patterns even if the migration factor is excluded. (EXCERPT)

Ethnicity and migration in Canada.

This study focuses on the relationship between ethnicity and geographic mobility in Canada by examining 1971 census data. Several competing hypotheses are extracted from the literature on the social demography of ethnic and minority groups and evaluated for their efficacy in explaining the observed differences in geographic mobility. The results from a multivariate analysis suggest that the causal mechanisms involving ethnic, characteristic factors and the propensity to move are varied and interconnected; hence, both ethnic and social demographic characteristics are important sources of migration differentials. The article concludes by providing a theoretical model for further examination of ethnicity and migration.

Violent and accidental mortality among four immigrant groups in Canada, 1970–1972

For most people immigration to a new country such as Canada entails a positive move and an improvement in life. The many challenges associated with resettlement may, however, lead to insurmountable difficulties, stresses and conflict for a significant number of newcomers. The mortality experience of immigrants, as reflected in cause-of-death statistics, may provide indication of the extent of stress and conflict in their migration experience. This situation is most clearly exhibited in mortality from suicide, homicide, and motor vehicle accidents. In this study, hypotheses concerning immigrant mortality in Canada are developed and tested with a log-linear model for rates pertaining to rare events. Overall, the results give support for the importance of country-of-origin effects in explaining suicide propensities, but not for homicide and motor vehicle accidents mortality. Income discrepancies are a significant determinant of variability in death rates overall, but discrepancies between the immigrants in this study and the Canadian-born are not of much significance. The strongest net effect on the cause-specific death rate is associated with group membership. This effect likely reflects a number of residual unmeasured sources of variation including the influence of the immigrant ethnic community as a source of social support, and the potential confounding effects of migration selectivity.

Married Female Labor Force Participation and Suicide in Canada, 1971 and 1981

The cultural context affects the relationship between womens involvement in the labor force and the odds of suicide for both men and women. In this study, we examine this relationship in Canada in 1971 and then again in 1981, when cultural conditions were significantly different. Two hypotheses are evaluated: (1) in 1971 the effects of married female labor force participation increase suicide risk for both men and women, due to the relative antipathy of society toward womens participation in the labor force; and (2) in 1981 the effects of married female labor force participation decrease the risk of suicide for both sexes, for there are net positive gains (psychic and material) in a context of widespread acceptance of womens involvement in the paid economy. The empirical analysis provides support for these two hypotheses.