[Analysis of the influence of social status on fertility of women in Bulgaria]

"The author studies the influence [of] the social status of women upon their fertility during first marriages [in Bulgaria]. The study has been made by means of the structural-factor analysis which is based on conventional one-dimensional and two-dimensional moment distributions. The degree of variations is determined by the integral coefficient of structural differences, the mean arithmetic value, the standard deviation, coefficients of asymmetry and excess. The author discusses: 1) the changes in the structure of various categories of women according to social groups, 2) the changes in the separate structures for each of the social groups of women according to the number of live-born children during the 1965-1985 period. The method of filtering variables is used to control the influence of the important demographic factor 'duration of marriage'." Data are from the censuses of 1965, 1975, and 1985. (SUMMARY IN ENG AND RUS)

The multistate life table with duration-dependence

"A method for generalizing the multistate, or increment-decrement, life table to include rates which depend upon duration of exposure to risk, as well as upon age, is proposed. The method is built upon the linear approximation, called the linear integration hypothesis, developed mainly by Rogers and his colleagues.... It is possible to derive several new summary indices of the life-table cohort's history, such as the mean and median time in current status, at any age. The method is illustrated using a simple four-state marital-status model which has appeared often in the literature; here, rates of divorce and widowhood vary by duration of marriage as well as age." An example is demonstrated using 1984 period data for women in Finland aged 15-50. (SUMMARY IN FRE)

A Markov chain for calculating the durability of marriage

"The usual Markov model of marriage permits informative experiments on the effect of alterations in the transition rules. It can tell, for example, what difference it would make to the durability of marriage if there was no divorce and the other transitions were as observed. This is in addition to the capacity of the usual model to find the effect of small changes in the transition rates. Canadian data for 1970-1982 permit comparisons over time, and show among other things not only that married men live longer than single, but that the difference is increasing; the increase in the 'marriage bonus' over time also appears for women." (SUMMARY IN FRE)

Divorce in the early years of marriage in England and Wales: results from a prospective study using linked records

A representative sample of over one thousand couples who married during 1979 in England and Wales was followed from the date of marriage until mid-1984 to investigate the characteristics of couples who divorce soon after marriage.

Couples who apparently lived together before marriage had a below average chance of early divorce, whereas couples where the addresses of the partners before marriage were very close had a significantly high rate of early breakdown. The chance of early divorce was significantly above average for spouses marrying in their teens and for both husbands and wives who, at their marriage, belonged to social class V. Couples who married with a civil ceremony had an above average (and those marrying with a religious ceremony a below average) risk of early divorce, but such differences were found to be negligible on analysing the results from a matched case-control study in which each ‘case’ marriage (one which ended in early divorce) was matched with a ‘control’ marriage (one which did not end in early divorce). Age at marriage, marital status before marriage and the social class of both partners, the factors controlled for in the case-control study, are likely to be amongst the strongest predictors of early divorce.

Psychosocial characteristics of repeat aborters in Singapore

"The psychosocial characteristics of 200 repeat aborters and 200 first time aborters [among] Singapore Chinese were compared with 200 antenatal patients. The repeat aborters started their sexual activities at an earlier age. They were married for a longer period, had more past pregnencies and more children, but their marital adjustments were slightly less satisfactory. There were no differences in education, housing, and religious practices among the three groups. The aborters knew more methods of contraceptive practices, but they tended to use unreliable methods. Their main reasons for seeking abortion were that their families were complete or that they wished to space births."

Cessation of childbearing in the absence of contraception in Sri Lanka

In data from the Sri Lanka Fertility Survey, 1975, the cessation of childbearing is examined among women who have never used contraception. They tend to cease childbearing relatively early, and therefore are infertile for longer periods during their marriages. It is probably age of the first child that influences decisions on future fertility.

The consequences of early marriage on marital dissolution

This study is concerned with the negative effects of early marriage on marital stability. "The focus on this paper is an analysis of a path model which includes the estimated effects of antecedents of early marriage, early marriage and education on the probability of divorce. Findings using the [U.S.] General Social Surveys support research that suggests that early marriage is the most important varialbe influencing divorce. Further, little influence of the early marriage measure through education was found."

Factors in long-term marriages

"The present study involves a nonrandom sample of 351 [U.S.] couples who have been married 15 years or more. Differences were found in the reported reasons for staying together between happy, unhappy, and mixed (one partner happy and one unhappy) marriages. For happy couples, the most frequently mentioned reasons for staying together was the perceived nature of the relationship, then the belief in marriage as a long-term commitment. Among the mixed and unhappy marriages, the most frequently named reason was the belief that marriage is a long-term commitment. Nineteen percent of those in mixed marriages and 47% in unhappy marriages said the children kept the marriage together."

Divorce and marital instability over the life course

"This study uses a [U.S.] national sample of married persons under age 55, interviewed in 1980 and again in 1983, to estimate why divorce and marital instability vary by age and duration of marriage. Results indicate that the accumulation of assets substantially reduces the propensity to divorce. We also find that several important correlates of divorce and instability (age at marriage, health, social integration, and income) interact with age and duration. In general, these factors seem to operate almost exclusively among young people and young marriages."

Time to conception after IUD removal: importance of duration of use, IUD type, pelvic inflammatory disease and age

Some investigations of IUD use have demonstrated impaired ability to become pregnant after removal, while others have not. None of these studies, however, have adequately considered such potentially influencing variables as age and a history of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). To study the effect of length of IUD use, IUD type and the modifying influences of age and PID history on time required to conceive, we followed women trying to become pregnant after removal of their IUD. Five hundred forty women in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia who were first fitted with an IUD between 1964 and 1972 and had their IUD removed in order to become pregnant were followed through 1980. We found no relationship between the duration of IUD use or type of IUD used, but increasing age and a history of PID each decreased the monthly probability of conception. These findings, along with other recent work, indicate that IUDs are a safe and efficacious contraceptive for women at low risk for sexually transmitted diseases.