Family size, adolescents’ schooling and the Demographic Transition: Evidence from Brazil

The goal of this paper is to address whether and how the changing family sizes of cohorts of adolescents born pre- and post-demographic transition are associated with increasing schooling of Brazilian adolescents. Decomposition analyses of nationally representative data demonstrate that, although a higher proportion of post-demographic transition cohorts live in smaller families, they also suffer a larger disadvantage from being in larger families than pre-demographic transition cohorts. Additional case studies and comparative works are needed to disentangle the mechanisms behind the dynamic association between sibship size and adolescents’ educational attainment found in Brazil.adolescents, Brazil, education, family size, Latin America

Estimating the effect of adolescent fertility on educational attainment in Cape Town using a propensity score weighted regression

We estimate the effect of a teenage birth on the educational attainment of young mothers in Cape Town, South Africa. Longitudinal and retrospective data on youth from the CAPS dataset are used. We control for a number of early life and pre-fertility characteristics. We also reweight our data using a propensity score matching process to generate a more appropriate counterfactual group. Accounting for respondent characteristics reduces estimates of the effect of a teen birth on dropping out of school, successfully completing secondary school, and years of schooling attained. Our best estimates of the effect of a teen birth on high school graduation by ages 20 and 22 are -5.9 and -2.7 percentage points respectively. The former is significant at the 5% level,while the latter is not statistically significant. Thus, there appears to be some `catching up' in educational attainment by teen mothers. We find only limited support for the hypothesis that there is heterogeneity in the effect of a teen birth, depending on the actual age of the first birth. By age 22, none of the estimates for high school graduation or years of schooling are statistically significant, regardless of the specific age at which the teen birth occurred. Despite this, we do find evidence that a teen birth does correlate with reduced educational expectations. The proportion of teen mothers who report an expected final educational attainment of high school graduation or greater is about 15 percentage points lower than the matched set of non-teen mothers, but this is not manifest amongst the girls whom we know will subsequently become teen mothers at some point after these expectations are measured.

Science, knowledge and society in times of pandemic: info-communication configurations in the health field

This article deals with the new configurations of information and communication in the domain of health knowledge in Brazil, by the intercurrence of two concomitant factors: the increasingly powerful increment of technical mediations in the digital environment; the health crisis caused by the pandemic of the new coronavirus - the SARS-CoV-2. To study the domain at this critical moment, we considered the scientific society that represents it - the Brazilian Association of Collective Health (Abrasco) - and the way it promoted communication among peers in the scientific field and between them and society, through the "Abrasco Agoras", a set of webinars bringing together researchers, professionals, health authorities, representatives of organizations and social movements to discuss the issues related to the pandemic moment. We started with a theoretical treatment of Domain Analysis, to then approach the new modalities of scientific info-communication in the era of E-science and pandemic. The results of the analysis of a sample of the "Abrasco Agoras" show that the intensive use of digital devices and the accelerated rhythm of scientific knowledge production demand reflections on the health domain that take into account the very way of functioning of the scientific field, the status of researchers and health professionals, the processes of production, mediation, diffusion and appropriation of knowledge, the modes of information and communication among peers and between peers and society.Este artigo trata das novas configurações da informação e da comunicação no domínio de conhecimentos da saúde no Brasil, pela intercorrência de dois fatores concomitantes: o incremento cada vez mais potente das mediações técnicas no ambiente digital; a crise sanitária provocada pela pandemia do novo coronavirus – o SARS-CoV-2. Para estudar o domínio nesse momento crítico considerou-se a sociedade científica que o representa - a Associação Brasileira de Saúde Coletiva (Abrasco) - e a forma como promoveu a comunicação entre os pares do campo científico e destes com a sociedade, por meio das "Ágoras Abrasco", conjunto de webnários reunindo pesquisadores, profissionais, autoridades sanitárias, representantes de organizações e movimentos sociais para discutir sobre as questões afetas ao momento pandêmico. Partiu-se de um tratamento teórico sobre a Análise de domínio, para em seguida abordar as novas modalidades da info-comunicação científica na era da E-science e da pandemia. Os resultados da análise de uma amostra das “Ágoras Abrasco” demonstram que o uso intensivo dos dispositivos digitais e o ritmo acelerado de produção do conhecimento científico demandam reflexões sobre o domínio da saúde que levem em conta o próprio modo de funcionamento do campo científico, o estatuto dos pesquisadores e profissionais da saúde, os processos de produção, mediação, difusão e apropriação dos conhecimentos, os modos de informação e comunicação entre os pares e destes com a sociedade

The Impact of the Zika Epidemic on Women’s Reproductive Intentions and Behaviors in Brazil

This research brief reports on a focus group study that explores how and why the Zika virus affects reproductive processes in Brazil. The authors found that both reproductive intentions and behaviors changed as a result of the Zika epidemic among women from low and high socioeconomic status groups in two areas of Brazil. The authors argue that Brazilian health officials and policymakers should reduce barriers to contraceptive use, address longstanding disparities in reproductive health services that put low-income women at disproportionate risk of an unwanted pregnancy, legalize abortion, and show respect and support to women who actively pursue pregnancy during the Zika epidemic.Population Research Cente

A dinâmica da escolaridade das crianças brasileiras durante a transição demográfica: aumento no tamanho da coorte versus diminuição no tamanho da família

This paper analyzes the effects of changing age structure and family size on schooling in Brazil. Cohorts born before 1982 were born during a period of falling family size but increasing cohort size. We show that the growth of the school-aged population peaked around 1990, coinciding with the onset of increasing enrollment rates in the 1990s. Pooling household survey data from 1977 to 1999, we estimate the effect of family size, cohort growth, and parental schooling on school enrollment. All have effects in the predicted directions, with the combined variables explaining over 70% of increased enrollment over the period.

The role of ontology in information management

The question posed in this thesis is how the use of ontologies by information systems affects their development and their performance. Several aspects about ontologies are presented, namely design and implementation issues, representational languages, and tools for ontology manipulation. The effects of the combination of ontologies and information systems are then investigated. An ontology-based tool to identify email message features is presented, and its implementation and execution details are discussed. The use of ontologies by information systems provides a better understanding about their requirements, reduces their development time, and supports knowledge management during execution time

Sexual Behavior, Pregnancy, and Schooling Among Young People in Urban South Africa

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74879/1/j.1728-4465.2008.00180.x.pd

Cultura informacional: construindo o objeto informação pelo emprego dos conceitos de imaginário, instituição e campo social

Construção do objeto informação tendo como conceito nucleador a idéia de cultura como artefato e como processo. O modo de funcionamento informacional da cultura. Informação, imaginário, instituição e campo social