skip to main content

Explore Research Products in the NSF-PAR

  • Home
  • Search Results
  • Page 1 of 2

Search for: All records

Award ID contains: 1729185

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. ; ; ; ( , Journal of Marriage and Family)
    Abstract Objective

    This article discusses how kinship is construed and enacted in diverse forms of the family that are now part of the culturally pluralistic family system of Western societies.

     Background

    This study is the second in a pair documenting changes over the past century in the meaning and practice of kinship in the family system of Western societies with industrialized economies. While the first paper reviewed the history of kinship studies, this companion piece shifts the focus to research explorations of kinship in alternative family forms, those that depart from the standard nuclear family structure.

     Method

    The review was conducted running multiple searches on Google Scholar and Web of Science directly targeting nonstandard family forms, using search terms such as “cohabitation and kinship,” “same‐sex family and kinship,” and “Artificial Reproductive Technology and kinship,” among others. About 70% of studies focused on the United States, while the remaining 30% focused on other industrialized Western societies.

     Results

    We identified three general processes by which alternative family forms are created and discussed how kinship practices work in each of them. Thefirstcluster of alternative family forms comes about throughvariations of formal marriage or its absence, including sequential marriages, plural marriages, consensual unions, single parenthood, and same‐sex marriages and partnerships. Thesecondcluster is formed as a result ofalterations in the reproduction process, when a child is not the product of sexual intercourse between two people. Thethirdcluster results from theformation of voluntary bondsthat are deemed to be kinship‐like, in which affiliation rests on neither biological nor legal bases.

     Conclusion

    Findings from this study point to a broad cultural acceptance of an inclusive approach to incorporating potential kin in “family relationships.” It is largely left to individuals to decide whether they recognize or experience the diffuse sense of emotional connectedness and perceived obligation that characterize the bond of kinship. Also, family scripts and kinship terms often borrow from the vocabulary and parenting practices observed in the standard family form in the West. Concurrently, the cultural importance of biology remains strong.

     Implications

    This study concludes by identifying important gaps in the kinship literature and laying out a research agenda for the future, including building ademography of kinship.

     
    more » « less
  2. ; ; ; ; ( , Population and Development Review)
    Abstract

    The Internet has revolutionized our economies, societies, and everyday lives. Many social phenomena are no longer the same as they were in the pre‐Internet era: they have been “Internetized.” We define theInternetizationof international migration, and we investigate it by exploring the links between the Internet and migration outcomes all along the migration path, from migration intentions to actual migration. Our analyses leverage a number of sources, both at the micro‐ and the macro‐level, including the Gallup World Poll, the Arab Barometer, data from the International Telecommunication Union, the Italian population register, and unique register data from a migrant reception center in Southern Italy. We also distinguish betweeneconomicmigrants—those who leave their country of origin with the aim of seeking better economic opportunities elsewhere—andpoliticalmigrants—those who are forced to leave their countries of origin for political or conflict‐related reasons. Our findings point to a consistently positive relationship between the diffusion of the Internet, migration intentions, and migration behaviors, supporting the idea that the Internet is not necessarily a driving force of migrationper se, but rather an enabling “supportive agent.” These associations are particularly relevant for economic migrants, at least for migration intentions. Further analyses underscore the importance of the Internet in providing a key informational channel which helps to define clearer migration trajectories.

     
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ( , Population, Space and Place)
    Full Text Available 
  4. ; ; ( , Population and Development Review)
    Full Text Available 
  5. ; ; ( , Population Studies)
    This research note illustrates the importance of a holistic approach to family demography and children’s well-being. Using the family configurations published in a previous study, we show that a configurational measure of family patterns predicts better the country-level proportion of stunted and wasted children across 75 low- and middle-income countries than 20 single family-related variables, world regions, and the Human Development Index. We contend that demographers need to do a better job of measuring social systems because individuals’ choices are influenced by contexts that are better represented with measures that capture multiple related factors (holistic approach) than with a single variable (analytical approach). 
    more » « less
    Accepted Manuscript Full Text Available
  6. ; ( , Studies in family planning)
    Research on the timing of events during transition to adulthood, such as first union, sex and, birth in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) focused predominately on measures of central tendency, notably median or mean ages. In this report, we adopt a different perspective on this topic by examining disparities in the timing of these events in 46 LMICs, spanning four decades. Using Demographic and Health Surveys, we estimate ages at which 25%, 50%, and 75% of women have first union, birth, and sex. We compute interquartile ranges to measure within-country variation and disparities in the timing of sexual initiation and family formation. Variation in the timing of first union, birth, and sex generally increases as the median ages at these events increase. Disparities in the timing of first union and birth grew in West Africa and Latin America, and women who experience these events relatively early increasingly lag behind women who experience them relatively late. Documenting trends in measures of central tendency is insufficient to capture complexity of ongoing changes because they mask growing disparities in the timing of family formation across many LMICs. These results are important for assessing progress towards achievement of SDGs related to reduction of early marriages and pregnancies and highlight a need for more holistic approaches to measuring timing of family formation. 
    more » « less
    Accepted Manuscript Full Text Available
  7. ; ; ( , Population Studies)
    The Brazilian period fertility rate (PTFR) dropped from six to 1.8 between 1950 and 2010. Due to the shifts in the timing of fertility, the PTFR might be providing a misleading picture of fertility levels. Moreover, the national average hides important educational differences, as in 2010, the PTFR was 2.3 among the lower educated, whereas it had fallen to 1.5 among the higher educated. The consequences of these changes for the cohort total fertility rate (CTFR) – a measure that is free from tempo distortions – and for the educational differences in completed fertility have not been previously studied. Due to the scarcity of time series of fertility rates, the application of CTFR forecasting methods outside of high-income countries (HICs) has been rare, and has been largely limited to population-level analysis. We use four Brazilian censuses to forecast the CTFR for the total population and by educational level using rates reconstructed with indirect techniques. The results of four forecasting methods indicate that the CTFR is likely to decline to 2.1 for the 1980 cohort, and to 1.9 for the 1984 cohort. Educational differences in the CTFR are likely to remain stark – at between 0.7 and 0.9 depending on the cohort and the method – and to be larger than they are in HICs with comparable CTFRs. We show how the CTFR can be forecasted, including by educational level in settings with limited data. Finally, we call for more research on the educational differences in completed fertility in low- and middle-income countries. 
    more » « less
    Full Text Available 
  8. ; ; ( , Demography)
    Abstract This article maps spatial and temporal variation in husbands' dominance in decision-making about their wives' health using pooled Demographic and Health Surveys from 28 countries in sub-Saharan Africa in an earlier (i.e., 2001–2005) and later (i.e., 2010–2014) period. First, we use adaptive bandwidth kernel density estimation to show how aggregate country-level estimates of husbands' decision-making dominance mask enormous spatial heterogeneity within countries. Our maps also reveal a geographic clustering of cells with similar levels of husband's decision-making dominance both within and between countries. Next, we use panel fixed-effects spatial regression methods to show that decreases in husbands' decision-making dominance in neighboring cells are associated with decreases in husbands' decision-making dominance in the reference cell. These findings support a diffusion explanation for declines in husbands' decision-making dominance over time. Our analyses also indicate that schooling and urbanization may be important channels through which diffusion occurs, which we speculate is because these are places where people are exposed to new ideas and gender norms. 
    more » « less
    Full Text Available 
  9. ; ; ; ( , Population and Development Review)
    Full Text Available 
  10. ; ( , SSM - Population Health)
    Full Text Available