A life course perspective on social and family formation transitions to adulthood of young men and women in Mexico

This research examines the trajectories that young men and women in Mexico experienced during their transition to adulthood in the 1980s and 1990s. The study, particularly, considers two groups of significant markers of adulthood: social transitions (leaving education, entry into the labour force, parental home leaving), and family formation transitions (first sex, first partnership, and first birth). The thesis investigates the ways that these transitions were experienced among Mexican youth: first, by establishing the main interactions between social transitions and family formation transitions to adulthood; and second, by providing evidence of the main trajectories followed by young men and women in their passage to adulthood from a life course perspective. Applying Event History techniques to retrospective data from the 2000 Mexican National Youth Survey, results show that young men and women experienced different patterns of trajectories in their transit to adulthood marked by a strong gender component. While young men showed a lag between the experience of social and family formation transitions characterized by work-oriented trajectories, young women often experienced almost simultaneous occurrence of social and family formation transitions leading to predominantly family-oriented trajectories to adulthood. Differences between urban and rural respondents were also found to be significant. Another conclusion of the study is that many young people found great difficulty in obtaining their first job after leaving education, leading to high unemployment. Despite the lack of employment opportunities for Mexican young people, family formation transitions were not substantially postponed until later ages unlike many developed nations. The findings also confirm the importance of education on the experience of transitions to adulthood. The study shows the need to restructure the Mexican educational system to enable young people to work and study simultaneously, without having to leave education immediately after entering the labour force. These findings highlight the need to strengthen and reinforce current education policies to stimulate labour force participation of young women

Factors associated with unmet need for contraception in Mexico: evidence from the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics 2014

Abstract Background Worldwide, the importance of contraception to control fertility has been recognized. A useful indicator of the gap between reproductive preferences and the provision of contraception is “unmet need for contraception”. The aims of this paper are to estimate the levels of unmet need for contraception among married and single women, and to explore factors associated with unmet need for contraception for spacing and limiting births in Mexico. Methods We used the Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics 2014, using a sub-sample of 56,797 sexually active women aged 15–49 years who were either currently in union or who had never been in union to estimate the prevalence of unmet need for spacing and limiting births. We applied multivariable binary logistic regressions to examine the relationship between unmet need for spacing and limiting considering associated factors. Results Unmet need for contraception was estimated at 11.5% among women in union (6.4% limiting; 5.1% spacing), and 28.9% for women never in union (8% limiting; 20.9% spacing). In the logistic regression for unmet need for spacing, the likelihood was statistically significant associated with younger women (OR = 6.8; CI = 2.95–15.48); women never in union (OR = 1.6; CI = 1.40–1.79); low levels of education (OR = 1.4; CI = 1.26–1.56); and residing in poor regions (OR = 1.9; CI = 1.52–2.49). Those with full access to public services were significantly less likely to have unmet need for spacing (OR = 0.8; CI = 0.66–0.88). In the logistic regression for unmet need for limiting, being younger (OR = 6.3; CI = 4.73–8.27), never in union and sexually active (OR = 3.0; CI = 2.47–3.54); with less schooling (OR 1.13; CI: 1.02–1.26); rural residence (OR = 1.2; CI = 1.07–1.32); and residing in poor regions (OR = 1.5; CI = 1.23–1.93) were factors positively associated with this unmet need. Women with private health services were the least likely to have unmet need for limiting (OR = 0.5; CI = 0.37–0.77). Conclusions Younger women currently in union and never in union had the highest unmet needs of contraception for spacing and limiting. The results from this study suggest that in Mexico family planning services must prioritize the contraception needs of all young women, both in union and not in union, with appropriate and suitable services to cover their needs

Trends in the prevalence and incidence of orphanhood in children and adolescents <20 years in rural KwaZulu-Natal South Africa, 2000-2014.

BackgroundIn South Africa, large increases in early adult mortality during the 1990s and early 2000s have reversed since public HIV treatment rollout in 2004. In a rural population in KwaZulu-Natal, we investigate trends in parental mortality and orphanhood from 2000–2014.MethodsUsing longitudinal demographic surveillance data for a population of approximately 90,000, we calculated annual incidence and prevalence of maternal, paternal and double orphanhood in children and adolescents (&lt;20 years) and, overall and cause-specific mortality of parents by age.ResultsThe proportion of children and adolescents (&lt;20 years) for whom one or both parents had died rose from 26% in 2000 to peak at 36% in 2010, followed by a decline to 32% in 2014. The burden of orphanhood remains high especially in the oldest age group: in 2014, 53% of adolescents 15–19 years had experienced the death of one or both parents. In all age groups and years, paternal orphan prevalence was three-five times higher than maternal orphan prevalence. Maternal and paternal orphan incidence peaked in 2005 at 17 and 27 per 1,000 person years respectively (&lt;20 years) before declining by half through 2014. The leading cause of parental death throughout the period, HIV/AIDS and TB cause-specific mortality rates declined substantially in mothers and fathers from 2007 and 2009 respectively.ConclusionsThe survival of parents with children and adolescents &lt;20 years has improved in tandem with earlier initiation and higher coverage of HIV treatment. However, comparatively high levels of parental deaths persist in this rural population in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly among fathers. Community-level surveillance to estimate levels of orphanhood remains important for monitoring and evaluation of targeted state welfare support for orphans and their guardians.</p