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We examine the effects of reproduction on longevity among mothers and fathers after age 60. This study is motivated by evolutionary theories of aging and theories predicting social benefits and costs of children to older parents. We use the Utah Population Database, that includes a large genealogical database from the Utah Family History Library. Cox proportional hazard models based on 13,987 couples married between 1860-1899 indicate that women with fewer children as well as those bearing children late in life live longer post-reproductive lives. As the burdens of motherhood increase, the relative gains in longevity of late fertile women increase compared to their non-late fertile counterparts. Husbands' longevity is less sensitive to reproductive history, although husbands have effects that are similar to those of their wives during the latter marriage cohort. We find some support for predictions based on evolutionary principles, but we also find evidence that implicates a role for shared marital environments.

One of the most consistent findings in social demography is that recently widowed individuals, male or female, have higher rates of mortality than comparable married persons. These results are based generally on contemporary studies in developed nations where life expectancy is high. Because of data limitations, there are few studies available to determine whether these findings also occur when mortality rates were higher. This study uses the Utah Population Database that was developed from extensive family genealogies and now linked to Utah death certificates. These data make it possible to employ life course analysis of four marriage cohorts extending from 1860 through 1904 with mortality follow-up to 1990. This approach is used to compare mortality risks of widowed males and females relative to comparable married individuals. Covariates included in the study are remarriage, as well as religion and number of children ever born; these are all hypothesized to have protective effects on mortality risks for widowed men and women. Analysis of these data indicates that there are significant differences in the mortality risk for widowed men and women, and it is widowed men who have an excess risk of dying in every cohort and nearly every age. A consistent pattern of excess mortality in the comparison of married and widowed women was not observed. There are significant female and male differences in the effect of religion which was treated as a proxy for life style and social support; however, remarriage as a proxy for social support has similar protective effects on the surviving spouse.

L'objectif de l'article est de preciser comment l'appartenance religieuse modifie le risque de deces. La base de donnees de la population de l'Utah est ici utilisee afin d'etudier la mortalite generale d'un echantillon d'hommes et de femmes maries qui ont survecu a leur quarantieme anniversaire. Les individus appartiennent aux generations 1850-1919, ils sont suivis pendant toute leur vie et se situent a l'epoque de la transition demographique. Les membres actifs de Eglise des Mormons presentent une mortalite inferieure a celle des membres non actifs ou des non-Mormons, difference qui se maintient si l'on tient compte des hierarchies socio-economiques. Les ecarts sont plus forts pour les âges medians et pour les generations nees le plus recemment. L'appartenance a l'Eglise mormone est aussi plus discriminante pour les hommes que pour les femmes. Ces observations empiriques confirment le role des pratiques de sante et du soutien social dans les liens entre l'engagement religieux et la plus faible mortalite.

This study focuses on the relationship between fertility and migration in families settling the Utah Territory. Genealogical data are used to identify the timing of migration (i.e., after, during, or before childbearing) and country of originfor migrants; and to analyze both fer tility levels for different types of migrants and the changes in fertility behavior associated with these levels. The highest fertility levels are among adults who migrated during their reproductive ages. Those who migrated young, before childbearing began, have lower fertility and are similar to natives of the frontier. Adult immigrants and emigrants of the Utah Territory use multiple strategies offamily formation.

This paper utilizes data from computerized Utah genealogies on changes in the intervals between births to argue that changes associated with the western fertility transition represent an adaptation of the population to changing socioeconomic circumstances utilizing extant modes of behavior rather than an "innovation" or adoption of new behavior. 24144 women born between 1840-95 married only once and remaining in an intact marriage through age 49 and living in Utah throughout their childbearing years formed the sample. Comparison of the Utah data with less detailed European data assembled by Henry and by Knodel shows the levels and lengths of intervals in each to be quite similar. The analysis of all birth intervals across the fertility transition for a series of cohorts controlling for children ever born revealed that indices previously used to measure the extent of fertility truncation over the course of various European transitions may be inadequate to detect enclaves of birth spacing. Spacing behavior appears to have existed in some groups even during periods of natural fertility. Over the course of the transition as increasing numbers of women modify their behavior to terminate childbearing at lower levels of children ever born they appear to adopt the spacing pattern already evident among a small group of women in earlier birth cohorts. The Utah increase was distributed over a wide segment of the population with differing completed fertility and differing life course patterns as reflected in age of marriage and age at last birth. The shift in contraceptive behavior was accompanied by increased age at marriage. Consistently increasing mean birth intervals with increasing parity are possible evidence of attempts to truncate childbearing. Further analysis of the role of interbirth intervals and the spread of fertility limitation might be relevant to the fertility transitions of contemporary developing countries.

This paper is part of a long-term investigation known as the Mormon Historical Demography Project. It examines the capability of a simulation model, originally proposed by John Bongaarts (1976), to fit the natural fertility pattern which characterized the mid-nineteenth century Mormon population. Application of this model permits estimates to be made of the historical timing and age-incidence of fertility limitation. A sensitivity analysis of the model’s parameters demonstrates that simple changes in the model’s proximate determinants of fertility, excluding contraceptive practices, would be insufficientto account for later transition effects. Thus the results successfully capture the dynamics underlying the Mormon natural fertility pattern as well as offer a framework for future modeling of the transition away from natural fertility.

This paper [examines] the marital and fertility experience of women born between 1800 and 1899 who participated in the settlement colonization and development of a region that marked one of the last frontier settlements in [U.S.] history. The focus is on the effects of different marriage patterns particularly polygyny on fertility. "In conclusion cumulative fertility behavior within periods of exposure was found to be similar across substantial variations in both marital histories and arrangements." (EXCERPT)

In this article we summarize the methods and present the initial results from a linkage of [U.S.] genealogical records from the Mormon Historical Demography Project (MHDP) to records from the 1880 Manuscript Census of Utah Territory. Our primary objective is to recount the linkage methods involved and to evaluate the representativeness of the genealogical records as reflected in the correspondence between longitudinal and census data. The data sets concern population characteristics household size family characteristics and fertility. (EXCERPT)

The direct relationship between fertility and fertility behavior of mothers and daughters was examined. It was hypothesized that the relative propensity to control family sizes in 1 generation is transmitted to the following generation and that transmission of fertility levels across generations is in part a result of the transmission of specific fertility-determining life-course behaviors across generations. The data were derived from the Mormon Historical Demography projects set of computerized family geneologies. To assess the importance of cohort effects the completed fertility of 1st daughters and last daughters was compared by mothers completed family size and mothers birth cohort. Daughters who were the last born tended to have lower fertility than 1st born daughters. For 1st born daughters a positive association between mothers and daughters family size was confirmed. The distribution of mothers and daughters relative to the median births for their respective cohorts was examined. Each woman was allocated to 1 of 3 groups: low -- completed fertility was 2 or more children less than the median for all women in the birth cohort; medium -- completed fertility was equal to + or - 1 child from the median for other women in the same birth cohort; and high -- completed fertility was 2 or more children greater than the median for all women in the birth cohort. It was expected that a greater proportion of daughters than mothers would have relatively low fertility. For the 1830-39 cohort only 15% of the mothers had relatively low fertility but 25% of their daughters did; for other mother cohorts the comparisons were 15:26 18:26 and 15:23. It also was expected that the daughters of low fertility mothers would be more likely to have relatively low fertility. For low fertility mothers in the 1830-39 cohort 33% of daughters had relatively low fertility; 24% fell in the relatively high fertility group. The expected difference was found for the 1840-49 cohort of mothers and for the 1860-69 cohort but not for the 1850-59 cohort. It also was expected that the daughters of relatively high fertility mothers would have relatively high fertility. 33% of daughters with high fertility mothers in the 1st cohort had relatively high fertility; only 23% had low fertility. This pattern was consistent for each of the other cohorts of mothers. Tabular and multivariate analyses supported the strong possibility that both fertility behavior and indirect associations regarding timing of fertility-related life course events were transmitted intergenerationally. Cohort-specific influences were substantial. The analyses confirmed both the hypothesized intergenerational fertility association and the hypothesized cohort-specific effects.

In this 10 year follow-up study of psychiatric patients enumerated in the 1950 New Haven Psychiatric census, the occupational adjustment of adult males between the ages of 21 and 64 is studied. Of the original 465 patients aged 11 to 54 in 1950, 132 were known to be living and in the community in 1960 and full interviews were completed for 121 of these patients. To measure the level of occupational performance, the patient group is compared with a group of adult males never treated for mental illness and matched individually with the patients on six socio-demographic characteristics. Seven indices of occupational adjustment are analyzed including general and specific indices of employment and unemployment, job shifts and income. Patients have more employment problems and three factors are found to be systematically related to patient control differences in occupational performance: institutional history, marital status and social class. In the case of former clinic patients, a measure of mental status is also related to patient control differences in occupational adjustment.

Unlike mortality or migration, the fertility behaviour of a population largely determines its age distribution1. A high fertility population maintains a broad-based age pyramid by adding continuously a large number of persons at the first year of life. In such a population the dependency ratio of children (say persons under 15 years) remains high relative to the size of its working age population (say those aged 15-64 years). A decline in fertility reduces this ratio and restructures the age distribution to make it more favourable to economic growth2 [4]. For this reason the study of human fertility occupies a singularly important position in the demographic literature today. In this paper the fertility of the population of Pakistan is examined. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate several fertility measures obtained from data collected through the Population Growth Estimation project in Pakistan3. The interrelationships of these measures in terms of their practical utility to planners for action programmes will be examined. Further, the possible impact on fertility resulting from a rise in the age at marriage in Pakistan will be discussed. An effort will also be made to identify the demographic differentials, relevant to planners, in the two provinces of the country

To date however the methodology of the approach used in Pakistan has not been systematically evaluated nor has its relevance to programs in other countries been examined. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine the methodology of the Pakistan approach to family planning evaluation the validity of the method and its usefulness in program evaluation within Pakistan as well as elsewhere. (excerpt)

One of the interesting phenomena evidenced by a rough comparison of the 195 ljUigU26!Juensuses-of Pakistan is that the proportion of the population in the labour force has increased from 30.7 per cent to 32.6 per cent. This is surprising from the demographic point of view, since it is well known that under the mortality and fertility conditions extant in Pakistan the likelihood of a proportionate increase in available supply of manpower is low [l]1. Specifically, with a high fertility rate the proportion of the population available as manpower will be low [2; 2a]. Mortality improvements from a high initial level of mortality typically make a population still younger and reduce the proportion at working age. Thus it is unusual that the comparison of the 1951 and 1961 Censuses would indicate an increase in the proportionate size of the labour force of Pakistan, since mor¬tality has been declining in Pakistan and there is no evidence that fertility has declined.

This paper presents a differential fertility analysis which is of interest on two counts : firstly, it provides concrete findings on the factors which modify behaviour patterns ; and secondly, it is based on a method of analysis by groups which enables several variables involded in this modification to be taken into account simultaneously. Religion and residence are two factors which undeniably have a strong influence on fertility. Their relative importance varies from one period to another., Dans cet article, les auteurs présentent une analyse de fécondité différentielle. L'intérêt de cette recherche est double : d'une part, elle apporte des résultats concrets sur les facteurs de transformation des comportements ; d'autre part, elle s'appuie sur une méthode d'analyse catégorielle qui permet de prendre en compte simultanément diverses variables explicatives. L'adhésion religieuse et le mode de résidence jouent indiscutablement un rôle important dans les stratégies de fécondité. Le poids respectif de ces deux facteurs évolue dans le temps., Mineau Geraldine-P., Anderton Douglas L., Bean Lee L., Willigan J. Dennis. Evolution différentielle de la fécondité et groupes sociaux religieux : l'exemple de l'Utah au XIXe siècle. In: Annales de démographie historique, 1984. Démographie historique et généalogie. pp. 219-236.

(1978). The Mormon Historical Demography Project. Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 45-53.

This paper investigates a late nineteenth‐century fertility transition in a predominantly Mormon population of the western United States. A unique set of longitudinal data composed of 31,500 computerized family genealogies is drawn upon to examine a number of problems identified in reappraisals of fertility transition research (Caldwell, 1981; Freedman, 1979). Four subcohorts, differentiated by religious commitment and exposure to urban influences, are examined over the course of the transition. The study presents traditional analyses of subcohort CEB levels, period MTFR's, and m values (Coale and Trussell, 1974) and focuses on a macrosimulation of the fertility transition within the population (Bongaarts, 1976). Despite wide subcohort variation in cross‐sectional levels of fertility over time, simulation results suggest a similar absolute longitudinal decline in fertility levels, parity at which contraception was initiated, and maximum birth parities for all four subcohorts. The implications of ...

The patterns of fertility change in successive birth cohorts of Utah women are traced starting with those born in 1840-1845 and ending with those born in 1895-1899. The study is based on a data set generated by a large-scale medical genetics program at the University of Utah. These data permit the classification of the study population into four sub-cohorts distinguished by dichotomies of religious commitment and exposure to urban secularizing influences. The focus of the study is on the influence of religious factors on the transition from natural to controlled fertility. The analysis suggests that women in all of the sub-cohorts differing in religious commitment and exposure to urban influences adopted birth spacing and truncation behavior at increasingly early ages. However the more religious and rural population adopted family limitation at higher parities.