Religiosity and contraceptive method choice: the Jewish population of Israel.

The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between religiosity and contraceptive method choice among users of contraception. The authors analyze a representative sample of 1751 married urban Israeli Jewish women interviewed in 1987-88. The authors' findings indicate that the contraceptive choices of religious women are determined largely by considerations unrelated to religious doctrine. A combination of factors, including the suitability of specific methods to fertility control needs, peer influences, and other cultural effects, appear to modify the acceptance and application of a particular religious theology.

The demographic transition then and now: processes, perspectives, and analyses.

Fifty years have passed since the post-World War II development of demography as an academic field. During this time, one of the central focuses of research has been the study of demographic and fertility transitions. The authors review a selection of research developments and analytic issues that have appeared in the literature. After presenting, in roughly chronological order, the general development of this research work, they raise questions concerning theory and methodology. In doing so, they argue that some research directions have been overemphasized to the neglect of others.

Family planning in the Jewish population of Israel: correlates of withdrawal use.

This report describes trends and differentials in contraceptive practices among Israeli Jews. Data from two fertility surveys show a heavy reliance on the IUD, little use of sterilization, and declining, but still significant use of withdrawal. The factors associated with the practice of withdrawal are explored. Evidence is found in support of Santow's hypotheses that the degree of sex-role differentiation within marriage and the belief that men hold the authority in reproductive decisionmaking are both positively related to the practice of withdrawal. Fear of oral contraceptives, a dislike of sterilization, and a reliance on the IUD only at greater parities imply a continuing role for withdrawal, especially among Israeli Jewish couples in which wives are less educated and have more traditional sex roles than the wives in other couples.

Pretransition marital fertility variation over time: was there deliberate control in England?

An important line of research concerning historical fertility patterns in currently developed countries of Europe has concluded that, prior to the fertility transition, marital fertility was essentially constant over time, and deliberate fertility control was virtually unknown. It has been argued that variations over time in overall fertility were largely the consequence of variations in nuptiality. Other researchers have challenged these views and present evidence for the existence of a significant minority of fertility controllers in pretransition populations. In this article, we find support for this second view and argue that (1) there was significant, non-random variation in marital fertility over time, prior to the transition; (2) in many cases, this variation in marital fertility was large relative to contemporaneous variations in nuptiality; and (3) in a substantial minority of the cases, the variation over time in pretransition marital fertility was so large that it is suggestive of deliberate fertility control. Thus, our findings question the view of fertility transition as an innovation in deliberate marital fertility control. While most of our evidence is based on data from England and Wales, we find corroboration of our key results in other European data.

What do we know about the timing of fertility transitions in Europe?

The Princeton project on the decline of fertility in Europe (the European Fertility Project) suggested that this historical fertility transition occurred virtually simultaneously in a wide variety of economic and social environments. This finding has been cited widely as evidence for an innovation/diffusion view of fertility transitions. We demonstrate that the demographic methods used to date the fertility transition in Europe--primarily Ig, and (to a lesser extent) the Coale-Trussell M&m indices--may fail to detect the initial stages of a fertility transition and therefore cannot be used as the basis for strong statements about the timing of transitions. We review these measurement problems and their implications for the current understanding of the European fertility transition.