Language usage and fertility in the Mexican-origin population of the United States.

This article examines the effects of English proficiency and female education on cumulative and recent fertility within the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. To ascertain whether the cultural or the human capital aspects of linguistic variables have the greater salience for fertility behavior, fertility patterns of bilingual women are compared with those of monolingual women speaking English or Spanish. Using the 1980 U.S. Census 5 percent Public Use Microdata Sample for ever-married Mexican-origin women aged 15-44, we find that for almost all age cohorts, the effects of English proficiency are negative and increase with rising education. The strength of the interaction is greater in younger age groups. Greater English proficiency is also associated with a more negative impact of education for native- than foreign-born women. Overall, the influence of "opportunity cost," as opposed to cultural factors, is more important in shaping the fertility behavior of these women.

Husband or wife? A multivariate analysis of decision making for voluntary sterilization.

The increasing popularity of sterilization as a contraceptive choice among married couples underscores the need for knowledge about differences between couples choosing male and female procedures. Data from national surveys suggest some sociodemographic differences, but these variables account for only a small amount of the variance. This research looks at other sets of variables--information sources, influence sources, and reasons husbands and wives give for wanting sterilization--in a multivariate analysis of the choice of a male versus a female operation. Particularly for husbands obtaining a vasectomy, the importance of social support is demonstrated.

Masculinity-femininity and the desire for sexual intercourse after vasectomy: a longitudinal study.

PIP: This research was concerned with the question of whether masculinity-femininity is related to postoperative changes in desire for intercourse among men who underwent vasectomy. Sexual desire was assumed at the outset to be a positive characteristic associated with masculinity among males with its expression being a means of reaffirming a sense of masculinity. The hypothesis was that masculinity would have a positive effect on changes in the desire for intercourse following vasectomy. Of the initial 176 couples who filled out questionnaires, 75 actively participated in follow-up and furnished data for this analysis. This group was compared to the group who did not furnish follow-up data and the 2 groups were found not to differ significantly with respect to masculinity, femininity, age or education. Masculinity was positively and significantly related to the postsurgical expression of increase in desire for sexual intercourse among vasectomized men. There is support then for the notion that response to vasectomy may sometimes involve compensation in those men who would likely perceive vasectomy as demasculinizing. 1 negative finding was that androgynous males do not alter their desire following vasectomy.^ieng

Changes in sexual desire after voluntary sterilization.

PIP: The authors consider 3 hyypotheses of prediction of self-reported changes in sexual desire, not frequency of sexual relations, following contraceptive sterilization. The hypotheses are: 1) the fear of pregnancy hypothesis, which predicts an increase in self-reported desire for sexual relations among both sterilized and nonsterilized females and males; 2) the compensatory hypothesis, which predicts an increase in sexual desire only among those sterilized; and 3) the gender-specific hypothesis, which predicts different effects of sterilization depending upon gender. Data were drawn from a sample of 713 husbands and wives who obtained either a female or a male sterilization, and who completed a questionnaire before the procedure; 224 people returned a completed questionnaire 6 months after the procedure. In this follow-up questionnaire respondents were asked whether desire for sexual intercourse had increased, decreased, or remained the same; 2 control variables, age and education, were introduced into the analysis. Approximately the same proportion of males and females reported an increase in sexual desire, which is consistent with the findings of other investigators. In the case of males the higher the education the less likely the respondent is to report an increase in desire; in females, the older the respondent the less the likelihood of reported increase. Sterilized females are also less likely than nonsterilized females to report an increase in sexual desire, while sterilized males are no more likely than nonsterilized males to report an increase. The major finding of the analysis is that the effects of sterilization on desire for sexual intercourse varies depending on whether it is the male or the female who is sterilized; thus, the gender-specific hypothesis predicting that the effect of sterilization is less likely to make for an increase in sexual desire among females is supported by the results; sterilized females were found to be less likely than females whose husbands are sterilized to report an increase in desire, which is consistent with the idea that surgical sterilization may involve a greater degreee of physical trauma for some women than for men.^ieng