Hideko Matsuo

Non-Response and Measurement Error

This chapter deals with some aspects of two sources of systematic error in surveys: non-response and measurement error. The quality of the obtained response is discussed first with a focus on non-response bias estimation and non-response bias reduction. Measurement error is studied by evaluating the quality of registered responses through question wording, order, and response scale effects. The different approaches to measurement error are discussed. Practical examples of dealing with bias and measurement error are offered. These include the evaluation of non-(response) rates and response enhancement strategies, comparing cooperative and reluctant respondents on non-response issues based on the analysis of European Social Survey. Concerning measurement error, the split ballot approach and multitrait multimethod are extensively discussed including theoretical concepts and methods/models, and an example of acquiescence when a balanced set of items is available. The chapter also presents some debates concerning theoretical construct and model developments in the respective fields, and emphasizes that both errors are strongly related. This means response distributions, correlations, and regression parameters can be seriously affected.

The Role of Secularization on Marriage and Conception Seasonality Patterns: A Study of Antwerp (Flanders, Belgium) in the Second Half of the Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Century

The period comprising the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century in Belgium has been described as one of rapid societal transformation including industrialization, urbanization, and, also in some extent, secularization. This is the historical period in which first mortality and later fertility also declined, facilitated by socio-economic (structural) and cultural changes, and resulting in the first demographic transition. One of the characteristics of the secularization marking this period is considered to be the reduced compliance with religious rules concerning the timing of marriages and sexual intercourse (i.e., conceptions). Against this background, the purpose of this article is twofold. It first assesses the initial extent and evolution of church control in the rapidly developing port city of Antwerp, Flanders (Belgium), in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This will be studied through a so-called daily Lent and Advent marriage and conception index. By daily, we mean that we exactly measure the timing of Advent and Lent. We secondly try to explain the determinants of the occurrence of these marriages and conceptions through individual socio-economic, cultural, and life-course factors. We use data from the unique multisource COR* historical sample, containing individual information from population registers and civil registration records (1845–1913). We find clear signs of decreasing compliance with religious rules and therefore secularization but different patterns for marriages and conceptions. Even though compliance overall decreases for both events, rules are better complied with for marriages, and in particular, first marriages. Marriages are more influenced by social control than for sexual intercourse (i.e., conceptions). The influence of stronger compliance with marriage seasonality is observed through better adherence with first conceptions, although this is in much less extent for higher-order conceptions. The occurrence of these events, in particular marriages, is determined by a number of structural, cultural, and life-course factors. Noncompliances are found more in an urban setting, older women, and later historical periods, whereas compliance is found in high social class of men. For conceptions, relatively few (significant) effects are observed, although noncompliance for maternal literacy status and compliance for paternal social class is also found indicating gender differential effects.

Women’s age at last childbearing and its determinants: a case study of Antwerp (Flanders, Belgium) on the basis of the multi-source COR* historical sample

Abstract Declines in the age at last childbearing in the first demographic transition reflected conscious changes in fertility behaviour during that period, in particular efforts to limit the total number of children. Such fertility limitation behaviour was the net result of ‘cultural causal factors’ on the one hand and ‘structural and economic causal factors’ on the other hand. This paper analyses the evolution of women’s age at last childbearing by reconstructing women’s life histories based on data from the multi-source COR* historical sample for Antwerp in the period 1846–1920. The paper also assesses the causes of this evolution through a number of theoretically grounded structural/economic, cultural and life course determinants, placing these concepts in a macro-micro framework of methodological individualism. For this purpose, in the first place a Kaplan-Meier analysis is applied to 10-year birth cohorts; a proportional hazard model is also applied to three different birth cohorts (mothers born before 1840; born in the period 1840–1859; and born after 1860); and a range of cultural and life course determinants are analysed, including women’s literacy status, marriage witness characteristics, the seasonality of marriages and births, and birth histories. The analysis confirms the decline in the age at last childbearing especially in the late cohort, and also highlights inter-cohort differences caused by cultural and life course determinants.