Georgia Verropoulou

Increasingly heterogeneous ages at first birth by education in Southern European and Anglo-American family-policy regimes: A seven-country comparison by birth cohort.

According to the ‘reproductive polarization’ hypothesis, family-policy regimes unfavourable to the combination of employment with motherhood generate greater socio-economic differentials in fertility than other regimes. This hypothesis has been tested mainly for ‘liberal’ Anglo-American regimes. To investigate the effects elsewhere, we compared education differentials in age at first birth among native-born women of 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts in seven countries representing three regime types. Women with low educational attainment have continued to have first births early, not only in Britain and the USA but also in Greece, Italy, and Spain. Women at all other levels of education have experienced a shift towards later first births, a shift that has been largest in Southern Europe. Unlike the educationally heterogeneous changes in age pattern at first birth seen under the Southern European and Anglo-American family-policy regimes, the changes across birth cohorts in the studys two ‘universalistic’ countries, Norway and France, have been educationally homogeneous.

Childcare and mothers’ employment: Approaching the millennium

Childcare provision in the UK has evolved alongside the expansion of mothers’ employment, transforming the experiences of successive generations. This paper reviews some mixed evidence on child outcomes of maternal employment and offers a detailed examination of the working mothers’ use of childcare. In particular, it looks at the differential use of formal and informal childcare provision using the first survey of the Millennium Cohort Study, which is compared, as far as possible, with evidence from the earlier birth cohort studies in 1970 and 1958. The affordability and trustworthiness of formal childcare remains a constraint on its use and indirectly on labour supply for some mothers.

'Maternity migration' and the increased sex ratio at birth in Hong Kong SAR

The sex ratio at birth (SRB) in Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region) has recently increased dramatically. Using a data set (N = 850,331) of all recorded births in Hong Kong between 1995 and 2009, we calculated SRBs by parity and immigrant status. The findings indicate a strong son preference among Mainland Chinese who have travelled to Hong Kong to give birth, especially at parity two or above. Logistic regression models show that this tendency is significantly greater among more affluent couples and remains strong even among Mainland Chinese women resident in Hong Kong for any length of time. The SRB of Hong Kong-born couples, though elevated at higher parities, is less skewed. Hong Kong has been serving as an outlet for ‘elite’ Mainland couples to circumvent family planning restrictions. The analysis also suggests the advantages of a wider set of immigrant variables over a binary construct.

Demographic and socioeconomic determinants of low birth weight and preterm births among natives and immigrants in Greece: an analysis using nationwide vital registration micro-data.

The present study makes use of nationwide individual-level vital registration data on the single live births occurring in Greece in 2006 to explore associations of socio-demographic factors with adverse pregnancy outcomes, using multinomial logistic regression models. The findings indicate that important risk factors associated with low birth weight preterm and intra-uterine growth retarded births (IUGR) include female sex, primiparity, age of mother over 35, illegitimacy and prior history of stillbirths, infant and child deaths. These constitute risk factors for normal weight preterm births as well, though associations with sex and primiparity in this case point to the opposite direction. Residing in large metropolitan areas is related to a greater risk of an IUGR birth. Among Greek women, educational attainment has a protective effect while housewife status is linked to higher chances of an IUGR birth. For immigrant mothers however, the opposite holds. The study also shows that normal weight preterm births form a distinct group.

Socio-economic inequalities in physical functioning: a comparative study of English and Greek elderly men

ABSTRACT The associations between socio-economic position (SEP) and physical functioning have frequently been investigated but little is known about which measures of SEP are the best to use for older people. This study examined how different SEP indicators related to the physical functioning of men aged 50 or more years in England and Greece. The data derived from Wave 1 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Self-reported physical functioning limitations and mobility difficulties were combined and categorised into ‘no disability’, ‘mild disability’ and ‘severe disability’. The SEP indicators studied were: wealth, educational level and occupational class. The findings indicate that respondents with less wealth, fewer educational qualifications and lower occupational class were more likely to experience mild or severe physical disability than those of high SEP. When all three measures of SEP were adjusted for each other, in both samples wealth maintained a strong association with mild and severe disability, while education was associated with severe disability but only among English men. Occupational class was not strongly associated with physical disability in either case. Hence, among English and Greek older men, wealth was a more important predictor of physical functioning difficulties than either occupational class or education.

Very low, low and heavy weight births in Hong Kong sar: How important is socioeconomic and migrant status?

Identification of modifiable factors and mediators linked to low and heavy birth weight is crucial in reducing infant mortality and health care expenditure. The present paper explores the associations of socio-demographic factors and immigrant status of parents with adverse pregnancy outcomes in Hong Kong. The analysis compares very low birth weight (VLBW: <1500 g), low birth weight (LBW: ≥ 1500 g and <2500 g) and heavy birth weight births (HBW: ≥ 4500 g) with births of normal weight (≥ 2500 g and <4500 g) using multinomial regression modelling of a large dataset of 828,975 births of singletons occurring between 1995 and 2009. The findings indicate the expected significant adverse associations between teenage and advanced age of the mother with compromised birth outcomes; teenage motherhood, however, has a protective effect against HBW births. A strong socioeconomic gradient is apparent, more marked among LBW births; low educational attainment of the father, low occupational class, public housing and single motherhood are strongly related to adverse pregnancy outcomes. Regarding immigrant status, women born in South and South-East Asia exhibit consistently higher odds of a compromised outcome. Women born in Hong Kong have significantly higher chances of LBW births while Mainland Chinese and parents from developed countries face higher odds of HBW births. The study identifies high-risk groups such as teenage, older and single mothers, South-East Asians and couples of low socioeconomic profile. Implementation of policies supporting these groups would be beneficial.

Modelling the effects of maternal socio-demographic characteristics on the preterm and term birth weight distributions in Greece using quantile regression.

The present study aims at modelling the effects of maternal socio-demographic characteristics on the birth weight distribution in Greece. The analysis is based on nationwide vital registration micro-data; 103,266 single live births recorded in 2006 are considered. Quantile regression models, allowing for the effects of covariates to vary across the conditional distribution of the dependent variable, birth weight, are applied to preterm and term births separately. The statistical analysis shows that the effects of most factors differentiate across the birth weight distributions. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) coefficients, on the other hand, systematically underestimate effects at the lower tail and overestimate effects among heavier babies. Hence, quantile regression has a strong advantage over the OLS method. The findings also indicate that birth weight distributions of term and preterm infants are distinct and should be analysed separately. For both distributions female sex, primiparity, age of mother over 35 and prior history of stillbirths and child deaths are related to lower birth weight while higher educational attainment has a protective effect. Among term births, illegitimacy, living in big metropolitan areas and immigrant status of the mother are also significant predictors. For preterm births the impact of age of mother, parity and, in particular, prior stillbirths or deceased children is very pronounced.

Differentials in sex ratio at birth among natives and immigrants in greece: An analysis employing nationwide micro-data

This study uses micro-level information on the live births registered in Greece for 2006 to assess differentials in the propensity to have a male offspring between natives and immigrants. The sex ratio at birth for the whole population is 106.3 but it is considerably higher among immigrants (110.9) than among natives (105.4). Relatively high sex ratios at birth are observed for several migrant groups; differentials between natives, on the one hand, and Albanians (109.5) and Asians (129.0), on the other, are significant. The high sex ratio at birth for Albanians seems typical of that population. For Asians, the result is consistent with international findings though it may also be partly related to the small number of observations.

Disability trends among older adults in ten European countries over 2004–2013, using various indicators and Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) data

ABSTRACT In the context of the prospective increase in the numbers of older adults in Europe and of conflicting findings regarding recent disability trends, the present study uses cross-sectional data from four waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), covering the period 2004–2013, and aims at the assessment of trends in disability by sex and broad age group (50–64 and 65 and over) for the ten countries participating in all waves, based on four different measures: limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs), limitations in instrumental ADLs, mobility difficulties and the Global Activity Limitation Indicator. The analysis uses logistic regression models adjusted for age and, subsequently, also for chronic conditions. The findings indicate improvements both in mild/moderate activity restrictions and in functional limitations for several countries, especially among men and women aged 65 and over. Regarding severe disability (ADLs) there is mostly a lack of any significant trend and only a few declines. In several instances, the observed trends are linked to changes in chronic conditions; significant improvements net of chronic conditions are found mainly in Sweden but also in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Italy and France. Overall, the estimated trends often differentiate by country, age group and sex while they depend upon the specificities of the measures used in the analysis.

A Re-Interpretation of the ‘Two-child Norm’ in Post-Transitional Demographic Systems: Fertility Intentions in Taiwan

Taiwan currently has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, leading to projections of rapid population ageing and decline. In common with other territories in Pacific Asia, policies designed to support childbearing have recently been introduced. Some optimism for the future success of these policies has been drawn from the fact that the ‘ideal’ number of children stated in Taiwanese surveys is over two. In this way, Taiwan appears to fit the ‘two-child norm’ model identified for Europe and North America. Furthermore, this feature has led commentators to state that Taiwan is not in a ‘low fertility trap’–where positive feedback mechanisms emanating from the normalisation of small families, slow economic growth and ageing/declining population mean attempts to increase fertility become ever less likely to succeed. Using a recent national representative survey, and arguing that ‘intentions’ are a more reliable guide to understanding the circumstances of family formation, this paper explores fertility intentions in Taiwan with a special focus on women at parity one and parity two. This will form the first full-length examination of fertility intentions in Taiwan published in English and one of the few studies of Pacific Asia that reports a micro-level analysis. We argue that using intentions should provide a better ‘barometer’ of attitudes towards childbearing in Taiwan, and that through micro-level analysis, we can better identify the predictors of intentions that could, in turn, provide useful clues both for projections as well as shaping policy responses. While we found some evidence for a ‘two-child norm’ among childless women, this could be an unrealistic ideal. This is supported by the fact that a majority of women with one child do not intend to have another.