Marital Processes, Husband-Wife Relationships, and Fertility Behaviors

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一个研究婚姻过程对生育行为的影响的建议，在一个刚刚开始戏剧性生育过渡的社会。这项研究的重点是生育率下降的最重要方面：推迟和终止生育的避孕药具使用率。背景，尼泊尔农村，是在婚姻过程和生育做法的过渡之中。理论和初步证据都指出，婚姻过程的多个维度的变化是个人社区背景、非家庭经历和生育行为之间的关键联系。然而，负责建立这些联系的具体机制仍然未知。我们建立在一个正在进行的研究计划，已经作出了许多贡献，我们的各种社区和个人层面的因素对婚姻和生育行为的影响的理解。我们建议调查多个军事进程的机制，将社区和个人层面的因素，特别是避孕药具的使用生育率。为了实现这一目标，我们将把现有的、文化上适当的婚姻过程多方面措施纳入避孕药具使用模型，对这些机制进行直接测试。我们建议使用的数据包含一个特别丰富的机构的上下文的措施，详细的个人访谈与丈夫和妻子，并记录避孕药具的使用跨越50多年。有了这些来自丈夫和妻子以及关于丈夫和妻子的丰富信息，我们就有了必要的措施，可以大大提高对婚姻过程和婚姻关系在解释背景和非家庭经验对避孕药具使用的影响方面的作用的科学认识。我们从这项研究中获得的见解特别重要，因为婚姻过程可能会强烈影响避孕药具的使用，并最终影响家庭和儿童的健康和福祉。 公共卫生相关性：本提案中描述的项目旨在提供有关通过避孕措施促进生育率下降的具体因素的新信息，包括推迟生育和减少生育。它的目的是使公共政策和公共卫生了解可降低极端贫穷国家生育率和人口增长速度的因素，在这些国家，减少生育和降低人口增长率有可能提高生活水平，改善妇女和儿童的健康和福祉。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a proposal to study the influence of marital processes on childbearing practices in a society just beginning a dramatic fertility transition. This study will focus on the most significant aspects of fertility decline: rates of contraceptive use both for postponement and termination of childbearing. The setting, rural Nepal, is in the midst of transitions in both marital processes and childbearing practices. Both theory and preliminary evidence point toward the importance of changes in multiple dimensions of marital processes as key links between individuals' community context, non-family experiences, and childbearing behaviors. However, the specific mechanisms responsible for creating these links remain unknown. We build on an ongoing program of research that has already made numerous contributions to our understanding of the influence of various community and individual level factors on both marital and childbearing behaviors. We propose to investigate multiple martial processes as mechanisms linking community and individual level factors to fertility specifically contraceptive use. To accomplish this we will integrate existing, culturally appropriate measures of multiple dimensions of marital processes into models of contraceptive use to conduct direct tests of these mechanisms. The data we propose to use contain a particularly rich body of contextual measures, detailed personal interviews with both husbands and wives, and record of contraceptive use spanning more than 50 years. With this wealth of information from and about husbands and wives, we have the measures necessary to significantly advance the scientific understanding of role of marital processes and marital relationships in explaining the effects of context and non-family experience on contraceptive use. The insights we gain from this study are particularly significant because marital processes may strongly affect contraceptive use, and ultimately influence both family and child health and wellbeing. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The project described in this proposal is designed to provide new information regarding the specific factors that promote fertility decline though contraceptive use, including both delayed childbearing and reduced childbearing. It is designed to inform public policy and public health about factors that can reduce fertility and slow population growth in extremely poor countries in which reduced childbearing and lower population growth are likely to improve standards of living and women and children's health and well-being.