Young People's Social Networks, Confidants and Issues of Reproductive Health

This qualitative micro study was conducted in the Metropole of Cape Town, the third largest metropole in South Africa during 2002. The study must be seen in relation to the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) that was conducted in June 2002. CAPS is planned as a longitudinal data collection project aimed at the youth in the Cape Metropole. The panel study broadly aims to supplement existing data sets like the Census, October Household Survey [OHS], Labour Force Survey [LFS] in particular with longitudinal and qualitative data addressing areas not necessarily done by national surveys. It anticipates uncovering determinants of schooling, unemployment and earnings of young adults and youth in this part of the country. Adolescent childbearing is common in South Africa as demonstrated by the 1998 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey, where by the age of 19 years, 30 percent of teenage females have had a child, 35 percent have been pregnant and the majority of teenage childbearing is outside of marriage. [Department of Health 1999] Given the high prevalence of pregnancy and unmarried childbearing among adolescent females, it becomes important to understand the degree to which young people themselves understand how pregnancy and childbearing in adolescence delay or disrupt other life course events such as school completion or entering into marriage or cohabitation. Drawing on focus group discussion data from teenagers in Cape Town on normatively appropriate sequences, we note the degree to which the actual ways teenage males and females move through adolescence depart from the normative sequences.

Analysis of recent male nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility patterns in Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Traditionally, demographers have studied the determinants of nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility patterns from the perspective of women. The 1994 Cairo UN International Conference on Population and Development was an important turning point in demography. Since then, there have been efforts to understand the role of men in shaping nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility patterns and how men can be involved in population policies. This analysis of male nuptiality, sexual behaviour and fertility is based on data from the 1992 and 1996 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the 1994 Zimbabwe DHS. The aim was to investigate issues of male demography for these two countries. Methods of analysis included descriptive statistics, life table analysis, logistic and hazard regression models. Results show that most of the socio-economic characteristics are not very important determinants of male demography in these two countries. Age at marriage is higher than that of women but there is little evidence that age at marriage for men is rising. Polygamy remains popular in Tanzania, where the proportion of men in polygamous unions is more than twice that in Zimbabwe. However, intensity of polygamy is low, as the majority of polygamous men have only two wives. Age at first sex is earlier in Tanzania than in Zimbabwe and is falling in both countries, more so in Zimbabwe than in Tanzania. Fertility, measured in terms of the number of children ever born per man, is higher in Tanzania than in Zimbabwe. Then again, the differentials in the rate of childbearing did not widely vary once controls for marriage duration and type of union are made. The study makes recommendation for the improvement of the quality of demographic data collected from men. Questionnaires need to be more detailed by, for example, including questions on the timing of various unions that men might have. In the study of male fertility, there is also need for information from more than one partner that a man has had. Given the early initiation into sexual relations, the study recommends intervention policies such as early sex education and a wider campaign for safe sex given the large number of single men who have more than one sexual partner

The Competing Demands for Women’s Labor: the Role of Women in Long-Term Care Provision in the Russian Federation

This report focuses on demographic trends within Russia, in order to assess women's participation in the labor force and how this may be affected by the increasing demand for long-term care. The report identifies the vital role of Russian women in providing both formal and informal long-term care. This first section places the topic in context, noting that migration to Russia is declining and is not likely to compensate for population losses and the aging of the population

Young people's social networks, confidants and issues of reproductive health

This qualitative micro study was conducted in the Metropole of Cape Town, the third largest metropole in South Africa during 2002. The study must be seen in relation to the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) that was conducted in June 2002. CAPS is planned as a longitudinal data collection project aimed at the youth in the Cape Metropole. The panel study broadly aims to supplement existing data sets like the Census, October Household Survey [OHS], Labour Force Survey [LFS] in particular with longitudinal and qualitative data addressing areas not necessarily done by national surveys. It anticipates uncovering determinants of schooling, unemployment and earnings of young adults and youth in this part of the country. 'Adolescent childbearing is common in South Africa as demonstrated by the 1998 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey, where by the age of 19 years, 30 percent of teenage females have had a child, 35 percent have been pregnant and the majority of teenage childbearing is outside of marriage.' [Department of Health 1999] Given the high prevalence of pregnancy and unmarried childbearing among adolescent females, it becomes important to understand the degree to which young people themselves understand how pregnancy and childbearing in adolescence delay or disrupt other life course events such as school completion or entering into marriage or cohabitation. Drawing on focus group discussion data from teenagers in Cape Town on normatively appropriate sequences, we note the degree to which the actual ways teenage males and females move through adolescence depart from the normative sequences

Young People's Social Networks, Confidants and Issues of Reproductive Health

This qualitative micro study was conducted in the Metropole of Cape Town, the third largest metropole in South Africa during 2002. The study must be seen in relation to the Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS) that was conducted in June 2002. CAPS is planned as a longitudinal data collection project aimed at the youth in the Cape Metropole. The panel study broadly aims to supplement existing data sets like the Census, October Household Survey [OHS], Labour Force Survey [LFS] in particular with longitudinal and qualitative data addressing areas not necessarily done by national surveys. It anticipates uncovering determinants of schooling, unemployment and earnings of young adults and youth in this part of the country. Adolescent childbearing is common in South Africa as demonstrated by the 1998 South Africa Demographic and Health Survey, where by the age of 19 years, 30 percent of teenage females have had a child, 35 percent have been pregnant and the majority of teenage childbearing is outside of marriage. [Department of Health 1999] Given the high prevalence of pregnancy and unmarried childbearing among adolescent females, it becomes important to understand the degree to which young people themselves understand how pregnancy and childbearing in adolescence delay or disrupt other life course events such as school completion or entering into marriage or cohabitation. Drawing on focus group discussion data from teenagers in Cape Town on normatively appropriate sequences, we note the degree to which the actual ways teenage males and females move through adolescence depart from the normative sequences.This research was supported by a grant from the Mellon Programme on Demography at the University of Cape Town. We thank the Andrew W Mellon Foundation for its support. Permission for this work was granted by the Western Cape Education Department. The authors would also like to thank the young men and women from Hout Bay, Khayelitsha, Mitchell’s Plain and Wynberg, who agreed to participate in the frank discussions that made this study possible. We also want to thank all the teachers [5 teachers from High Schools, a Church Minister and a lay minister] who made the focus group sessions possible

Additional file 1: Table S1a. of Examining changes in maternal and child health inequalities in Ethiopia

Detailed Definition of Indicators. Table S1b.Definition of Terms. (DOCX 58 kb