Women\u27s Changing Attitudes Toward Divorce, 1974–2002: Evidence for an Educational Crossover

This article examines trends in divorce attitudes of young adult women in the United States by educational attainment from 1974 to 2002. Women with 4‐year college degrees, who previously had the most permissive attitudes toward divorce, have become more restrictive in their attitudes toward divorce than high school graduates and women with some college education, whereas women with no high school diplomas have increasingly permissive attitudes toward divorce. We examine this educational crossover in divorce attitudes in the context of variables correlated with women\u27s educational attainment, including family attitudes and religion, income and occupational prestige, and family structure. We conclude that the educational crossover in divorce attitudes is associated most strongly with work and family structure variables

Comportement nouveau de la migration interne en Belgique (1963-1976).

New patterns of internal migration in Belgium - 1963-1976. As has been observed in several Western industrialized countries, in Belgium too recent patterns of migration indicate a definite shift towards further suburbanization and even counter-urbanization. The amplitude of the shift is revealed here by an analysis of the communal distribution of net migration rates and by comparing such distributions for the period 1973-76 with those for 1963-67. In addition, multiple regression equations indicate that re gressors such as the proportion of the labour force in agriculture, local employment opportunities indices, income level and communal population density are either becoming inadequate predictors of the net-migration rates or have an impact that goes in the opposite direction from what was observed in the I960's . On the other hand, positive net-migration rates are increasingly associated with the availability of a pleasant environment and good access to major roads. An increase in commuting volume follows, which creates specific problems with respect to public transportation, energy consumption and land use...En Belgique, comme dans plusieurs autres états occidentaux industrialisés, on remarque que le comportement migratoire récent se caractérise par une suburbanisation plus accrue, et même par une contre-urbanisation. L'amplitude de ce changement est ventilée dans cette étude par une comparaison des taux de migration nette (au niveau des communes belges) pour les deux périodes 1963-67 et 1973-76. Moyennant des équations de régression, l'analyse montre que les variables telles que la proportion de la population active agricole, la disponibilité d'emploi, le niveau de revenu et la densité de population sont en train de perdre leur importance en tant que facteurs explicatifs de la migration nette. Par contre, il semble que les considérations visant la qualité de vie (d'où l'importance accrue des facteurs comme la présence d'un environnement agréable etc...) prennent le pas. L'accroissement du navettage qui en suit ne fait qu'augmenter les aspects problématiques du transport en commun, de la consommation énergétique et de l'usage rationnel des terrains.Lestaeghe R., Bülte R., Wijewickrema S. Comportement nouveau de la migration interne en Belgique (1963-1976).. In: Hommes et Terres du Nord, numéro hors-série 1981/1. Migrations internes et externes en Europe Occidentale. Tome 1. pp. 361-374

Fertility rates and future population trends: Will Europe's birth rate recover or continue to decline?

Europe has long completed its demographic transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates. But the demographic transition paradigm that has been very useful for explaining global demographic trends during the 20th century and that still has strong predictive power when it comes to projecting future trends in countries that still have high fertility, has nothing to say about the future of fertility in Europe. The currently popular notion of a 'second demographic transition' is a useful way to describe a bundle of behavioural and normative changes that recently happened in Europe, but it has no predictive power. The social sciences have not yet come up with a useful theory to predict the future fertility level of post-demographic transition societies. We even do not know whether the trend will be up or down. Given the lack of a predictive theory, this paper will try to do two things: (i) Summarize different substantive arguments that would either suggest the assumption of a recovery of fertility rates in Europe or alternatively, imply further declines. (ii) Convert this discussion of the uncertainty of future fertility trends into probabilistic population projections for Europe, thus highlighting the implications of alternative fertility levels over the coming years. We will also discuss trade-offs between fertility and immigration, and the phenomenon that Europe now has entered a period of negative momentum of population growth