Marital Processes, Husband-Wife Relationships, and Fertility Behaviors

描述(由申请人提供)：这是一项研究婚姻过程对生育实践的影响的建议，在一个刚刚开始戏剧性的生育转变的社会中。这项研究将集中在生育率下降的最重要方面：推迟和终止生育的避孕使用率。背景是尼泊尔农村，婚姻程序和生育习惯都在转型中。理论和初步证据都指出，婚姻过程的多个维度的变化作为个人社区环境、非家庭经历和生育行为之间的关键联系具有重要意义。然而，负责创建这些链接的具体机制仍不清楚。我们建立在一个正在进行的研究项目的基础上，该项目已经为我们理解各种社区和个人层面的因素对婚姻和生育行为的影响做出了许多贡献。我们建议研究多个婚姻过程，作为将社区和个人水平的因素与生育，特别是避孕措施使用联系起来的机制。为了实现这一点，我们将把现有的、在文化上适当的婚姻过程多维度测量方法整合到避孕使用模型中，以对这些机制进行直接测试。我们建议使用的数据包括一系列特别丰富的背景措施，对夫妇的详细个人采访，以及超过50年的避孕药使用记录。有了来自丈夫和妻子以及关于丈夫和妻子的丰富信息，我们有必要采取必要的措施，大大促进对婚姻过程和婚姻关系在解释背景和非家庭经历对避孕使用的影响方面的作用的科学理解。我们从这项研究中获得的见解尤其重要，因为婚姻过程可能会强烈影响避孕措施的使用，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关于通过使用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。它的目的是让公共政策和公共卫生了解极端贫穷国家中可能降低生育率和减缓人口增长的因素，在这些国家，减少生育和人口增长可能会改善生活水平以及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.