1. Is Sibling Rivalry Fatal? Siblings and Mortality Clustering.
- Author
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Kippen, Rebecca and Walters, Sarah
- Subjects
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SIBLING rivalry , *BIRTH order , *BIRTH intervals , *DEMOGRAPHIC research , *INFANT mortality , *CHILD mortality , *SIBLINGS ,BELGIAN history - Abstract
The complex interrelationships between birth order, birth intervals, and sibling mortality clustering have been the source of much debate in historical demography and in the demography of the developing world. No clear resolution yet exists either about the relative importance of these factors in determining infant and child mortality or about the pathways through which they operate. This article re-examines the issue in the context of nineteenth-century Belgium through the use of population registers, which can go one step further than historical-demographic studies based on family-reconstitution data and contemporary studies based on birth-history data. The movements in and out of households that population registers record enable us to trace the presence or absence of siblings in a household at a particular point in time. Accommodating the number of siblings present in a household as a time-varying entity is important given that familial-mortality clustering may signal shared exposure to pathogens and competition for resources, both of which depend on the presence of co-resident siblings. This article therefore aims to understand child-mortality clustering though the medium of the household rather than the mother's birth history, permitting the de facto presence of siblings to be factored into the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
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