Gretchen T. Cornwell

Are there crisis-led fertility declines? Evidence from central Cameroon.

Past demographic transitions have beenobserved with and without economic progress, but thereis little empirical record of crisis-driven fertilitytransitions. In recent years, several authors haveargued that conditions for such transitions are met inAfrican countries under economic crisis and structuraladjustment. Using retrospective family histories,this study examines fertility responses to crisis inCameroon, a country with a particularly abrupteconomic reversal. The thesis of a crisis-led declineis tested on the basis of five criteria includingtiming of the decline, statistical and substantivesignificance, rural-urban response differentials andsocial salience. Findings are consistent with acrisis-led effect.

Fertility of U.S. farm women during the electrification era, 1930-1950

The research reported here examines the fertility of U.S. farm women during the period in which rural America became electrified. It suggests that electrification was relatedly indirectly to fertility through the impact it had on farm and home production modes, and also through its facilitation of more general socioeconomic change. The model is tested using Census and Agricultural Census data for 473 rural farm counties at three points in time — 1930, 1940, and 1950.Overall, the results of multivariate analyses generally support the conceptual model. The effects of farm production/technology factors, electrification, and sociodemographic characteristics are evaluated using OLS. The effects of electrification net of the other variables are significant when subsamples of Southern and non-Southern counties are examined separately, with electrification related to lower fertility in Southern counties and higher fertility in non-Southern counties. The findings emphasize the importance of considering potential demographic impacts when introducting rural development projects in developing countries.

Polygyny and child survival in Nigeria: Age-dependent effects

Mortality risks under age five are estimated using data from the 1990 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey for children in monogamous and polygynous families. Integrating existing theories on polygyny’s relationship with infant and child mortality and some demographic concepts, the study shows that polygyny has different effects on infant and child mortality at different ages. The results indicate that polygyny does not have a significant effect on neonatal mortality (age less than one month). In contrast to the results of previous research, polygyny is significantly associated with lower child mortality during the post-neonatal period (1–11 months), but not during childhood (12–59 months). The study found socio-economic factors to be important confounders of the relationship between polygyny and mortality during the neonatal and post-neonatal periods. The protective effect of polygyny during the post-neonatal period suggests the need to further investigate circumstances that may favour post-neonatal child survival in polygynous families including availability of childcare.

The Changing Family Context of Early Adolescence

Adolescents today in the United States make the transition to adulthood in an environment that is very different from that experienced in previous decades. The family is one environmental component that has changed significantly. In this article, census data were used to describe the demographic characteristics of families of children ages 10 through 14 years in 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, and 1990. The focus was on characteristics that have established implications for short-and long-term social and economic well-being, including family structure, mothers age at the time of the adolescents birth, number of siblings in the home, and parental education, employment, and income. The analysis indicated that the period between 1940 and 1990 saw a marked increase in the proportion of adolescents living in demographically advantaged family contexts. Whether the characteristics translate into a more or less supportive environment for the child depends on their relevance for that childs development.

Influences of mother's work, childhood place of residence, and exposure to media on breast-feeding patterns: experience of Nigeria and Uganda.

Abstract This study uses data from the Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey collected in 1990 and the Ugandan Demographic and Health Survey collected in 1995 to examine the implications of mothers work, childhood place of residence, and exposure to the media for breastfeeding patterns (exclusivity and intensity) in Nigeria and Uganda. Nigeria and Uganda present an interesting contrast because Nigeria is more modernized and economically developed than Uganda, thus providing a good indication of the influence of modernization on breast‐feeding patterns. Mothers work status is defined by considering whether mothers earned cash from work and took their children to work, hence emphasizing the compatibility of work with child care. Work least compatible with child care had a negative effect on breast‐feeding intensity in Nigeria. The negative effect of mothers work on exclusive breast‐feeding (that is, if the mothers used formula or milk instead) observed for some working mothers in Nigeria and Uganda was partly confounded by urban residence, exposure to media, and other socioeconomic factors. Mothers work did not have a negative effect on breast‐feeding intensity in Uganda. The relationship between mothers work, urban residence, media exposure, and breast‐feeding practice seems to be stronger in Nigeria than Uganda.