Language usage and fertility in the Mexican-origin population of the United States
Language usage and fertility in the Mexican-origin population of the United States
复制标题
美国墨西哥裔人口的语言使用和生育率
作者：
G. Swicegood;F. Bean;E. H. Stephen;W. Opitz
本文考察了英语水平和女性教育对美国墨西哥裔人口累积生育率和近期生育率的影响。为了确定语言变量的文化方面还是人力资本方面对生育行为有更大的影响，将双语女性的生育模式与说英语或西班牙语的单语女性的生育模式进行了比较。利用1980年美国人口普查中15-44岁已婚墨西哥裔女性的5%公共使用微观数据样本，我们发现，对于几乎所有年龄组，英语熟练程度的三个影响都是负面的，并且随着教育程度的提高而增加。在较年轻的年龄组中，这种互动的强度更大。与外国出生的女性相比，英语水平更高的女性受教育的负面影响也更大。总的来说，与文化因素相比，“机会成本”的影响在塑造这些女性的生育行为方面更为重要。
This article examines the effects of English proficiency and female education on cumulative and recent fertility within the Mexican-origin population in the U.S. To ascertain whether the cultural or the human capital aspects of linguistic variables have the greater salience for fertility behavior, fertility patterns of bilingual women are compared with those of monolingual women speaking English or Spanish. Using the 1980 U.S. Census 5 percent Public Use Micro data Sample for ever-married Mexican-origin women aged 15–44, we find that for almost all age cohorts, thee effects of English proficiency are negative and increase with rising education. The strength of the interaction is greater in younger age groups. Greater English proficiency is also associated with a more negative impact of education for native- than foreign-born women. Overall, the influence of “opportunity cost,” asopposed to cultural factors, is more important in shaping the fertility behavior of these women.