Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2012, Vol. 10

Sub-Saharan Africa was the last major part of the developing world to experiencefertility decline, and fertility in the region remains high compared to fertility inAsia and Latin America. Correspondingly, women’s education, known to be animportant factor related to fertility via multiple pathways, is comparatively low inthe region. Numerous studies have documented the importance of increasingwomen’s education as a key variable contributing to fertility decline in thedeveloping world. This paper uses aggregated data to examine the role ofincreasing women’s educational attainment in the ongoing fertility transition insub-Saharan Africa, in conjunction with other socioeconomic changes such asdeclining infant and child mortality and changes in economic well-being. Inaddition, detailed patterns of fertility differences by educational attainment arealso examined across countries using individual-level data, highlighting thesignificant role in fertility transition of increasing secondary and higher education.

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This paper reassesses the nexus between female education, employment andfertility in Nigeria. The four Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) that havebeen conducted in the country (1990–2008) were analysed. Between 1990 and2008, the educational status of women improved appreciably and the proportionof illiterate women in the country declined from 57.2 to 35.8 per cent.Multivariate analysis suggests that female education was inversely related to theindicators of fertility (P<0.01). The association between working away fromhome and fertility indicators was negative in the pooled data (P<0.01), but thisassociation was mixed in separate surveys. Self- employment manifested apositive relationship with the indicators of fertility (P<0.01). Female educationremains a valid channel through which a sustainable fertility decline can beachieved in the country. A vigorous drive to promote female education in all partsof the country is recommended. Girl child education in the north should bestressed.

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Two prominent theses on social change concur with regard to the on-goingdevelopment of family systems in the process of general social change: the modelof the “second demographic transition”, suggested by the demographers van deKaa and Lesthaeghe; and the model of “family change”, proposed by the crossculturalpsychologist Kağıtçıbaşı. This paper presents an empirical test based onan analysis of family change in Japan, a collectivistic, yet modernised society;and in Germany, a society characterised by ‘Western’ individualism. Ourempirical test is based on 12 cumulated, representative surveys from these twosocieties, which together cover the family formation processes of 49,983 womenborn between 1915 and 1985. For both Germany and Japan, we examine theinfluence of educational inequality on family formation, and explore how it haschanged over a period of 60 years, by means of multivariate Cox regressionanalyses. The two models emphasise different aspects of the change in the familyformation process: although the changes point in the direction predicted by thesecond demographic transition model, the differences between the two societieshave remained stable or have even widened, in line with the family change model.

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This paper exploits a vast database of international census and survey microdatato examine the relationship between school enrolment on the one hand and thestatus of being in a union or a parent on the other among female adolescents andyoung adults in low- and middle-income countries. Our analysis is based onwidespread evidence for 55 countries among 15 to 24 year-old females. Highshares of student population are strongly correlated with low shares in spousaland parental roles between countries. We show that this relationship is driven bythe fact that students are less likely to be in spousal and parental roles comparedto non-students. Nevertheless, as we compare older ages, the share of studentsreported as spouses and/or mothers increases. The prevalence of spousal andparental roles among the student population is correlated to the overall levels ofspouses and mothers in the total population, even when controlling for the level ofschool currently attained.

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The investigation on cognition has identified structural characteristics of thesocial network as important components to contrast cognitive ageing. Using datafrom the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, we examine theassociation between number of children and cognitive functioning in later life,considering the performance in three cognitive tests (fluency, immediate recalland delayed recall). The analyses focus on respondents aged 60+, not in thelabour market, accounting for their proximity and frequency of contact tochildren. We find a positive association between cognitive functioning and havingchildren: childless men and women name a lower number of items in one test, theso-called “fluency test”. However, parents of two children show higher abilitiesthan parents of a single child and heads of large families. Our findings alsoindicate that more contacts with children are associated with higher fluency.Interestingly, the relationship with the child(ren) is not significantly related tocognitive performance in the two tests of recall abilities, where educationalattainment and the presence of a spouse or partner show to be more relevant.Studying both men and women allows us to consider both biological mechanismsand social relationships linking parity and cognitive functioning in later life.

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While men have always received more education than women in the past, thisgender imbalance in education has recently turned around. For the first time inEuropean history, there are now more highly educated women than men reachingthe reproductive ages and looking for a partner. I expect that this will haveprofound consequences for the demography of reproduction because matingpatterns have always implied that men are the majority in higher education. Thesetraditional practices are no longer compatible with the new gender distribution ineducation. The objective of this paper is to formulate hypotheses about theconsequences for reproductive behaviour in Europe. I expect the following causalchain between the reversal of the gender imbalance in education (RGIE) andfertility: RGIE creates a new, education-specific mating squeeze that affects theprocess and expected pattern of assortative mating, which in turns affects thetiming, probability and stability of union formation, which eventually is expectedto have implications for fertility. Each of the links in this chain are discussed indetail.

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