Contextual Determinants of Induced Abortion: A Panel Analysis

OBJECTIVE

Analyze the contextual and individual characteristics that explain the differences in the induced abortion rate, temporally and territorially.

METHODS

We conducted an econometric analysis with panel data of the influence of public investment in health and per capita income on induced abortion as well as a measurement of the effect of social and economic factors related to the labor market and reproduction: female employment, immigration, adolescent fertility and marriage rate. The empirical exercise was conducted with a sample of 22 countries in Europe for the 2001-2009 period.

RESULTS

The great territorial variability of induced abortion was the result of contextual and individual socioeconomic factors. Higher levels of national income and investments in public health reduce its incidence. The following sociodemographic characteristics were also significant regressors of induced abortion: female employment, civil status, migration, and adolescent fertility.

CONCLUSIONS

Induced abortion responds to sociodemographic patterns, in which the characteristics of each country are essential. The individual and contextual socioeconomic inequalities impact significantly on its incidence. Further research on the relationship between economic growth, labor market, institutions and social norms is required to better understand its transnational variability and to reduce its incidence.

Below: Abortions per thousand live births in Europe during 2009

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/458IUb

By:  Mar Llorente-Marrón, Montserrat Díaz-Fernández, and Paz Méndez-Rodríguez

Departamento de Economía Cuantitativa. Facultad de Economía y Empresa. Universidad de Oviedo. Oviedo, España

Correspondence: Mar Llorente-Marrón. Departamento de Economía Cuantitativa. Facultad de Economía y Empresa. Avda. del Cristo, s/n 33006 

Rev Saude Publica. 2016; 50: 8.

Published online 2016 Mar 10. doi:  10.1590/S1518-8787.2016050005917

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How Condom Discontinuation Occurs: Interviews with Emerging Adult Women

We have almost no data on how and when couples stop using condoms. This qualitative study investigated the process of condom discontinuation. 

From November 2013 to April 2014, a total of 25 women living in a college town in the Midwest, ages 18 to 25, participated in semi-structured interviews centered around three domains: partner interactions, contraceptive use, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention. Analysis followed a critical qualitative research orientation. 

Participants described actively seeking the best options to prevent pregnancy, perceiving condom discontinuation in favor of hormonal methods as a smart decision, and reported wanting to discontinue using condoms due to physical discomfort. Oftentimes, nonverbal communication around contextual instances of condom unavailability paved the way for discontinuation. 

Participants indicated the decision to stop using condoms was neither deliberate nor planned. Condom discontinuation rarely occurred at one point in time; instead, it was preceded by a period of occasional use. 

Even after participants described themselves as not using condoms, sporadic condom use was normal (typically related to fertility cycles). This study provides a more detailed understanding of how and why emerging adults negotiate condom discontinuation, thereby enhancing our ability to design effective condom continuation messages. 

Attention should be paid to helping emerging adults think more concretely about condom discontinuation.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/xQ8x0c

By:  Mullinax M1, Sanders S2, Dennis B3, Higgins J4, Fortenberry JD5, Reece M6.

• 1 HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies , Columbia University and New York State Psychiatric Institute.
• 2 Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, Indiana University-Bloomington and Department of Gender Studies , Indiana University-Bloomington.
• 3 Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, School of Education , Indiana University-Bloomington.
• 4 Department of Gender and Women's Studies , University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• 5 Department of Pediatrics , Indiana University-Indianapolis.
• 6 Center for Sexual Health Promotion , Indiana University-Bloomington.
• J Sex Res. 2016 Mar 16:1-9.  

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Are Pregnancy Intentions Associated with Transitions Into and Out of Marriage?

CONTEXT:

In addition to having associations with health outcomes, pregnancy intentions may be associated with social outcomes, including marital transitions.

METHODS:

Linked data from the 2004-2008 Oklahoma Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System and The Oklahoma Toddler Survey for 2006-2010 on 3,617 women who were married and 2,123 who were unmarried at conception were used to examine the relationship between pregnancy intention status (intended, mistimed by less than two years, mistimed by two or more years, or unwanted) and marital formation or dissolution by the time of the birth and two years later. Logistic regression analyses were conducted, and propensity score methods were used to adjust for confounding characteristics.

RESULTS:

Intention status was associated with marital transition two years after the birth, but not between conception and birth. In adjusted models, among women married at conception, those with a birth resulting from an unwanted pregnancy were more likely than those with a birth resulting from an intended pregnancy to transition out of marriage by the time their child was two years old (odds ratio, 2.2). Among women unmarried at conception, those with a birth following an unwanted pregnancy were less likely than those with a birth following an intended pregnancy to marry by the time their child was two (0.5). Births following mistimed pregnancies were not associated with marital transition.

CONCLUSIONS:

The findings should motivate researchers to broaden the scope of research on the consequences of unintended childbearing. Future research should distinguish between mistimed and unwanted births.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/k6tgQH

By:  Maddow-Zimet I1, Lindberg L2, Kost K2, Lincoln A3.

• 1Guttmacher Institute, New York. imaddowzimet@guttmacher.org.
• 2Guttmacher Institute, New York.
• 3Oklahoma Department of Health, Oklahoma City. 
• Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2016 Feb 29. doi: 10.1363/48e8116.

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Low Receipt and Uptake of Safer Conception Messages in Routine HIV Care: Findings from a Prospective Cohort of Women Living with HIV in South Africa

BACKGROUND:

Safer conception strategies may be used by people living with HIV (PLWH) to reduce HIV transmission to partners resulting from condomless sex for conception. The extent to which PLWH receive safer conception messages and use risk reduction strategies is largely unknown.

METHODS:

We use prospective data from a clinic-based cohort study in Johannesburg, South Africa. Women living with HIV (WLWH) aged 18-35 on antiretroviral therapy (n=831) completed a baseline survey and ≥1 follow-up visits assessing fertility intentions and pregnancy incidence; an endline survey was administered one year post-enrollment. Multivariate negative binomial regression models examined differences in the number of condomless sex acts by fertility intentions. Chi-squared statistics compared receipt of safer conception messages by fertility intentions, as well as indicators of safer conception method use by partner HIV status.

RESULTS:

The median baseline age of participants was 30.4 years and 25.3% were in serodiscordant partnerships. WLWH trying to conceive were over three times more likely to have condomless sex compared to those not trying to conceive (aIRR: 3.17, 95%CI: 1.95-5.16). Receipt of specific safer conception messages was low, although women with positive fertility intentions were more likely to have received any fertility-related advice compared to those with unplanned pregnancies (76.3% vs. 49.1%, p<0.001). Among WLWH trying to conceive (n=111), use of timed unprotected intercourse was infrequent (17.1%) and lower in serodiscordant versus concordant partnerships (8.5% vs 26.9%, p=0.010).

CONCLUSIONS:

These findings suggest that clinic and patient-level interventions are needed to ensure that WLWH receive and employ safer conception strategies.

Purchase full article at:   http://goo.gl/Mcm9cy

By:  Steiner RJ1, Black V, Rees H, Schwartz SR.

• 1 a Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education 
• b Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI), University of the Witswatersrand 
• c Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
• J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2016 Feb 5. 

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Lights and Shadows about the Effectiveness of IVF in HIV Infected Women: A Systematic Review

Background. 

HIV infected women have higher rates of infertility. 

Objective. 

The purpose of this literature review is to evaluate the effectiveness of fresh IVF/ICSI cycles in HIV infected women. 

Materials and Methods. 

A search of the PubMed database was performed to identify studies assessing fresh nondonor oocyte IVF/ICSI cycle outcomes of serodiscordant couples with an HIV infected female partner. 

Results and Discussion. 

Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. Whenever a comparison with a control group was available, with the exception of one case, ovarian stimulation cancelation rate was higher and pregnancy rate (PR) was lower in HIV infected women. However, statistically significant differences in both rates were only seen in one and two studies, respectively. A number of noncontrolled sources of bias for IVF outcome were identified. This fact, added to the small size of samples studied and heterogeneity in study design and methodology, still hampers the performance of a meta-analysis on the issue. 

Conclusion. 

Prospective matched case-control studies are necessary for the understanding of the specific effects of HIV infection on ovarian response and ART outcome.

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By:  Marques C1, Guerreiro C2, Soares SR3.

• 1Maternidade Dr. Alfredo da Costa, Rua Viriato, 1069-089 Lisboa, Portugal.
• 2Fetal Maternal Department, Maternidade Dr. Alfredo da Costa, Lisbon, Portugal.
• 3Instituto Valenciano de Infertilidade (IVI-Lisboa), Lisbon, Portugal. 
• Infect Dis Obstet Gynecol. 2015;2015:517208. doi: 10.1155/2015/517208. Epub 2015 Dec 8.

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Women Infected with HIV Type 1 Have Poorer Assisted Reproduction Outcomes

OBJECTIVE:

To compare the efficacy of assisted reproductive technology (ART) in women infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) versus HIV-negative controls.

INTERVENTION(S):

Ovarian stimulation, oocytes retrieval, standard in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection, embryo transfer.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S):

Clinical pregnancies and live-birth rates.

RESULT(S):

After oocyte retrieval, all women infected with HIV-1 infected were matched 1:1 to HIV-negative controls according to the following criteria: date of ART attempt, age, parity, main cause of infertility, ART technique, and rank of attempt. Only the first IVF cycle during the study period was considered for each couple. We found no statistically significant differences between the two groups for ovarian stimulation data, fertilization rate, or average number of embryos transferred. The clinical pregnancy rate per transfer was statistically significantly lower for the cases compared with the controls (12% vs. 32%), as were the implantation rate (10% vs. 21%) and the live-birth rate (7% vs. 19%).

CONCLUSION(S):

In one of the largest studies to pair six factors that influence the results of ART, HIV infection in women was associated with poorer outcomes after ART. These results suggest that women with controlled HIV-1-infection should be counseled not to delay ART in cases of self-insemination failure or other causes of infertility. Fertility preservation by vitrification of oocytes in women whose pregnancy should be delayed may be an important future consideration.

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By:  Stora C1, Epelboin S2, Devouche E1, Matheron S1, Epelboin L1, Yazbeck C1, Damond F1, Longuet P1, Dzineku F1, Rajguru M1, Delaroche L1, Mandelbrot L1,Luton D1, Patrat C1.

• 1Centre d'Assistance Médicale à la Procréation, Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France.
• 2Centre d'Assistance Médicale à la Procréation, Service de Gynécologie-Obstétrique, Hôpital Bichat-Claude Bernard, Paris, France. Electronic address: sylvie.epelboin@aphp.fr.
• Fertil Steril. 2016 Jan 19. pii: S0015-0282(16)00004-2. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2015.12.138. 

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Absence or presence? Complexities in the donor narratives of single mothers using sperm donation

STUDY QUESTION

How do single mothers who have conceived a child via anonymous or identity-release sperm donation represent the donor?

SUMMARY ANSWER

While the majority of mothers described their anonymous and identity-release donors as symbolically significant to their families, others were more likely to emphasize that their lack of information limited their thoughts about him.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY

There is limited understanding of the factors that impact upon how single mothers represent the donor, and whether or not they are determined by specific donor programmes (anonymous or identity-release).

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION

Qualitative interviews were conducted with 46 women who had treatment at a UK licensed fertility clinic during the years 2003–2009. Twenty mothers (43%) had used an anonymous donor, and 26 (57%) had used an identity-release donor.

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS

Among the 46 mothers interviewed, all had at least one child conceived via donor insemination who was between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Mothers were heterosexual and were currently without a live-in and/or long-term partner. Interview data were analysed qualitatively according to the principles of thematic analysis.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE

Findings indicated marked diversity in single mothers' representations of the donor. Most (n = 27) mothers talked about the donor as symbolically significant to family life and were likely to describe the donor as (i) a gift-giver, (ii) a gene-giver and (iii) a potential partner. Others (n = 16) talked about the donor as (i) unknown, (ii) part of a process and (iii) out of sight and out of mind. There were mothers with anonymous and identity-release donors in each group. Several mothers explained that their feelings about the donor had changed over time.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION

All mothers conceived at a licensed fertility clinic in the UK. Findings are limited to individuals willing and able to take part in research on donor conception.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS

The study offers greater insight into the factors influencing the donor narratives produced in single-mother families. It has implications for the counselling and treatment of single women seeking fertility treatment with donor gametes in both anonymous and identity-release programmes. Given that the number of clinics offering identity-release programmes worldwide seems to be increasing, the finding that single women may have varying preferences with regard to donor type, and varying interest levels with regard to donor information, is important. It is recommended that clinicians and other fertility clinic staff guard against making assumptions about such preferences and any thoughts and feelings about the donor or donor information on the basis of marital status.

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/ZCBnWb

By:   S. Zadeh,* T. Freeman, and S. Golombok

Centre for Family Research, University of, Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RQ, UK

^*Correspondence address. E-mail: ku.ca.mac@552zs

 

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Temporal Trends in Fertility Rates: A Nationwide Registry Based Study from 1901 to 2014

Objective

Increasing age at first childbirth has been suggested to increase the risk for infertility. Our objective is to determine whether women above thirty years of age historically have been able to sustain fertility rates above replacement level.

Design

A descriptive nationwide Danish study using birth registries from 1901–2014.

Setting

Information on women’s age at childbirth was obtained by using records from primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.

Participants

Mothers to 8,024,969 live births.

Main outcome measures

Mothers were stratified according to age at childbirth to determine total and age specific fertility rates.

Results

Total fertility rate (TFR) decreased from 4.1 to 1.8 children per woman and age specific fertility also decreased from 1901 to 2014. Women aged 30–34, 35–39 or 40–44 years in the first decade of the 20th century had higher fertility rates than the corresponding five year younger age groups (25–29, 30–34 and 35–39, respectively) have had for the last 65 years. On average, women gave birth to two children after the age of 30 and one or more child after 35 years of age in the beginning of the 1900s. Furthermore, women more than 40 years of age accounted for 10% of TFR in 1901 compared with 4% in 2014 despite usage of assisted reproduction.

Conclusion

This nationwide study shows that women above 30 years of age historically have been able to sustain fertility rates above replacement level. This implies that other factors besides age are strong determinants of fertility in women above 30 years of age.

Below:  A: Average maternal age at childbirth 1901–2014 and at first childbirth 1960–2014. B: Total fertility rate (TFR) and cumulative fertility rates for selected age groups 1901–2014

Below:  A: Age specific fertility rates 1901–2014. B: Age specific fertility rate 1901–2014. C: Age specific contribution to total fertility rate 1901–2014. D: Cumulative age specific fertility rates 1901–2014

Below:  A: Legal Abortions 1981–2013. B: Age specific fertility rates and estimated pregnancy rates including legal abortions (broken lines) 1993–2013

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/50sfeM

By:  

Martin Blomberg Jensen

Department of Oral Medicine, Infection and Immunity, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, United States of America

Martin Blomberg Jensen, Lærke Priskorn, Tina Kold Jensen, Anders Juul, Niels Erik Skakkebaek

Department of Growth and Reproduction and International Research and Research Training Centre in Endocrine Disruption of Male Reproduction and Child Health (EDMaRC), Rigshospitalet, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark

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Premarital First Births: The Influence of the Timing of Sexual Onset Versus Post-Onset Risks in the United States

Motivated by long-standing debates between abstinence proponents and sceptics, we examine how socio-economic factors influence premarital first births via: (i) age at first sexual intercourse and (ii) the risk of a premarital first birth following the onset of sexual activity. Factors associated with an earlier age at first intercourse will imply more premarital first births owing to increased exposure to risk, but many of these same factors will also be associated with higher risks of a premarital first birth following onset. Our analyses confirm previous findings that women from disadvantaged backgrounds are younger at first intercourse and have higher premarital first-birth risks than women from more advantaged backgrounds. However, differences in onset timing have a strikingly smaller influence on premarital first-birth probabilities than do differences in post-onset risks. Our findings thus suggest that premarital first births result primarily from differences in post-onset risk behaviours as opposed to differences in onset timing...

Our empirical results confirm previous findings that women from disadvantaged backgrounds initiate sexual activity earlier and have more premarital first births than those from more advantaged backgrounds. Our hazard regressions reveal strikingly different effects of covariate for the transitions to sexual activity and to a premarital first birth following onset. A standard set of sociodemographic variables have large and statistically significant associations with premarital first birth risks following onset. These same variables have smaller associations with onset risk, and only a subset are statistically significant. These findings provide empirical hints that some aspects of these two processes may be behaviorally distinct. Results from decompositions comparing median onset timing for disadvantaged and advantaged groups show that, net of controls, differences in exposure to risk have only a small influence on the probability of a premarital first birth, but that group differences in post-onset risks have a sizeable influence on the probability of a premarital first birth. This pattern—small effects of differential exposure to risk but sizeable differences in post-onset risks—holds for all the variables we examine.

Why might this be? Some insight can be gleaned by contrasting what is characteristic of sexual onset vs. a premarital first birth. A higher risk of an event usually implies more individuals experiencing the event, and our results show that this holds for premarital first births. Thus, we find that sizeable and statistically significant group differences in post-onset premarital first birth risks imply equally sizeable group differences in the probability of such births. Sexual onset is different. Premarital sexual activity was both close to universal and highly compressed in this birth cohort of women, with estimated group differences in median ages at onset of 0.7 to 9.0 months after conditioning on background controls. Taken together, near universality and compression mean that even sizeable and statistically significant group differences in onset risks imply only modest group differences in onset timing.

These results also speak, in part, to policies such as the abstinence provisions in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act by providing answers to “what if” questions such as “What might be the expected consequence for premarital first births were a policy to delay onset by an amount equal to that for women from intact vs. nonintact families?” Our results suggest that for premarital first births, onset timing plays a quite minor role relative to post-onset risks. This negative finding—that onset timing plays only a minor role—is, we believe, likely to be robust against factors not observed in our data in that the class of unobservables needed to reverse this finding will be far smaller than usual.

Our results thus suggest that policies seeking to influence post-onset behaviors may be far more effective than those seeking to delay sexual onset. But our findings do not distinguish between a variety of post-onset factors, including the frequency of post-onset sexual activity; contraceptive use, knowledge, and consistency; whether pregnancies are planned or unplanned; abortion availability and utilization; and how such options are weighed when individuals confront different sets of circumstances. Our results thus speak to the question of when policies to reduce premarital first births might be most effective, but say little about which post-onset behaviors might be most effectively targeted.

Further caution is warranted in that the outcomes we analyze have been evolving rapidly. In the United States, there have been sharp declines in teen fertility and steady increases in nonmarital fertility, but only modest increases in women’s age at first sexual intercourse, with premarital sexual activity remaining nearly universal. These trends reinforce our belief that our central finding—that for the probability of a premarital first birth, onset timing plays a quite minor role relative to post-onset risks—will likely hold for more recent birth cohorts of women. What has undoubtedly changed are factors influencing post-onset risks—post-onset contraception has improved among sexually active teens and young adults, and there have been sharp increases in births to cohabiting couples. This study thus provides only a first step towards examining these and other proximate determinants, but our findings also suggest that future research on such factors may hold substantial promise for better understanding the behavioral subprocesses underlying nonmarital fertility...

Full article at:  http://goo.gl/Vu9OTZ

By:  Lawrence L. Wu, Steven P. Martin, 

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Fertility Intentions, Power Relations & Condom Use Within Intimate & Other Non-Paying Partnerships of Women in Sex Work In Bagalkot District, South India

This study aimed to: (1) examine the relationship between interpersonal as well as social-demographic, cultural and structural factors, and condom non-use by sex workers' main intimate or other non-paying male sex partners (NPPs), as reported by a sample of sex workers (SWs); and (2) understand HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) risk (e.g., numbers of sexual partners; condom use with different partners) among couples comprised of a sub-set of SWs and their NPPs. 

Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with condom non-use at last sex by the main NPP, as reported by SWs. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals are reported (AOR[95%CIs]). Data were drawn from cross-sectional surveys in Bagalkot District, Karnataka State, South India. 

Responses by SWs whose main NPPs agreed to enrol in the study and the main NPP enroled were linked; these responses by couples (pairs of SWs and NPPs) were examined to assess sexual risk for HIV/STIs. Overall, this study included 257 SWs and 76 NPPs. The data from 67 couples (88.2%) could be linked. In over a quarter of partnerships, at least one (SW or NPP) partner reported having another type of partner besides each other (and clients of SWs). 

In multivariable analysis, significantly increased odds of condom non-use at last sex with the main NPP were found for the following key factors: 

• planning to have a child with their main NPP; 
• and having decisions about condom use made by their main NPP or both equally (versus by the SWs herself). 

Our study highlights the potential risk for HIV/STI acquisition and transmission between NPPs and SWs, and between NPPs and their non-SWs wives and other sex partners. 

Study results underscore the need for HIV/STI prevention approaches that incorporate informed decision-making about childbearing and parenting, and empowerment strategies for SWs in the context of their relationships with NPPs.

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By: Deering KN1,2, Shaw SY3, Thompson LH3, Ramanaik S4, Raghavendra T4, Doddamane M4, Bhattacharjee P4, Moses S3,5, Lorway R3.

• 1Faculty of Medicine, Division of AIDS , University of British Columbia, Vancouver , Canada.
• 2BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, St. Paul's Hospital , Vancouver , Canada.
• 3Faculty of Medicine, Community Health Sciences , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.
• 4Karnataka Health Promotion Trust , Bangalore , India.
• 5Faculty of Medicine, Medical Microbiology , University of Manitoba , Winnipeg , Canada.  

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Factors Associated with Delays in Seeking Post Abortion Care among Women in Kenya

Delays in seeking quality post abortion care services remain a major contributor to high levels of mortality and morbidity among women who experience unsafe abortion. However, little is known about the causes of and factors associated with delays in seeking care among women who suffer complications of unsafe abortion. This study looks at factors that are associated with delays in seeking post-abortion care among women in Kenya.

Data for this study were from a nationally representative sample of 350 healthcare facilities that participated in the 2012 Incidence and Magnitude of Unsafe Abortion study in Kenya. Data included socio-demographic characteristics, reproductive health and clinical histories from all women treated with PAC during a one-month data collection period.

Delay in seeking care was associated with women’s age, education level, contraceptive history, fertility intentions and referral status.

There is need to improve women’s access to quality sexual and reproductive health information and services, contraception and abortion care. Improving current PAC services at lower level facilities will also minimize delays resulting from long referral processes.

Full article at: http://goo.gl/SnfrDi

By: 

Michael M. Mutua^12*, Beatrice W. Maina¹, Thomas O. Achia² and Chimaraoke O. Izugbara¹

¹African Population and Health Research Center, 2nd Floor APHRC Campus, Manga Close Off Kirawa Road, Nairobi, Kenya

²School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

  

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Persisting Differences or Adaptation to German Fertility Patterns? First and Second Birth Behavior of the 1.5 and Second Generation Turkish Migrants in Germany

In this study, we use data of the German Mikrozensus to explore first and second birth behavior of migrants’ descendants. Whereas prior waves of the Mikrozensus only included respondents’ citizenship, in the survey years 2005 and 2009 also parental citizenship has been surveyed. This allows us to identify respondents’ migrant backgrounds, even if they have German citizenship. 

We distinguish those who migrated as children (1.5 generation) from those who were born to Turkish parents in Germany (second generation migrants). We compare both migrant generations to German non-migrants. Using discrete-time hazard models, our results show that 1.5 generation migrants have the highest probability of having a first and second birth, while German non-migrants have the lowest birth probabilities. The second generation lies in-between. 

This pattern also persists after taking the educational attainment of respondents into consideration. However, there seems to be an adaptation of highly educated second generation Turkish migrants to non-migrant Germans: we find no significant differences in the probability of having a first birth in the two groups. For second births, we do not find this pattern which might be related to the young age structure in the sample of second generation migrants.

Below: Survival curves. Non-migrant Germans, 1.5 and second generation migrants. Female respondents of birth cohorts 1965–1991. (Source: Mikrozensus 2005 and 2009, unweighted. Authors’ own illustration)

Read  full article at:  http://ht.ly/SHXVa 

By: Sandra Krapf and Katharina Wolf

Institut für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie (ISS), Universität zu Köln, Greinstraße 2, 50939 Cologne, Germany

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