BACKGROUND Previous research suggests that kin availability may be correlated with reproductive outcomes, but it is not clear that a causal relationship underlies these findings. Further, there is substantial variation in how kin availability is measured. OBJECTIVE We attempt to identify whether different measures of kin availability influence how kin affect reproductive outcomes and whether th...

Does Parental Leave Affect Fertility and Return-to-Work? Evidence from a “True Natural Experiment” We study the causal effects of changes in parental leave provisions on fertility and return-towork behavior. We exploit a policy change that took place in 1990 in Austria which extended the maximum duration of parental leave from the child’s first to the child’s second birthday. As parental leave ...

EMILY McDONALD EVENS: Conceptualizing and Testing a New Measure of Fertility Intentions: A Mixed Methods Exploration of Factors that Affect the Achievement of Childbearing Plans (Under the direction of Sian Curtis and Herbert Peterson) Understanding fertility intentions is crucial for reproductive health research and programs. While quantitative research has identified factors associated with f...

The aim of this study is to assess fertility determinants among Saudi women. A cross sectional descriptive study design was used. All data was collected through distribution via online questionnaire (twitter, facebook). Target populations were Saudi ever married females living in Riyadh city, KSA. Respondents were 305 ever married females responding to online communication. Self administered qu...

Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS), this paper compares fertility behavior across four groups of generations: recent and long-term immigrants of 1 generation, plus second and third generations. Several important findings emerge from this study: First, consistent with previous studies, we have documented higher current fertility among recent immigrants, but childbearing is lo...

CONTEXT Demographic phenomena occur within social contexts and, therefore, should be studied as social processes. However, how to conceptualize and measure the social worlds that individuals inhabit has been the subject of debate. METHODS Data from a study conducted in Mali in 1996-1997 are used to explore the social networks of Bamanan women and their impact on fertility decisions. Ordinary ...

Fertility choices are linked to the different preferences and constraints of individuals and couples, and vary importantly by socio-economic status, as well by cultural and institutional context. The meaning of childbearing and childrearing, therefore, differs between individuals and across groups. In this paper, we combine data from Google Correlate and Google Trends for the U.S. with ground t...

Materials and methods: In Experiment One, at 65 to 70 days of gestation, 96 sows were assigned by parity to individual or group housing and observed for aggressive encounters during three 1.5-hour time blocks immediately after relocation and 1 day later. On the third day, feeding-time aggression was observed during two 30minute feeding periods, starting when feed was dropped. Saliva samples obt...

This paper focuses on the realization of positive fertility intentions with different time frames. The analyses are based on a unique combination of survey data and information from Norwegian administrative registers on childbearing in the years following the complete selected sample. Guided by the theoretical and empirical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the results suggest ...