In this study we have investigated fertility levels during periods of unusually high unemployment levels. Our research questions were: 1. To what extent does fertility levels change during periods of higher unemployment? 2. Can family policies affect changes of fertility levels during these periods? Our hypothesis states that firstly, fertility levels are expected to be lower during periods of higher unemployment, due to households perceiving a lower level of economic security. Secondly, effective family policies should counter this effect, making unemployment having less of an effect on household fertility decisions, due to family policy lowering the economic risks associated with having a child. We performed an analysis in two parts. In the first part we divided countries into groups based on which countries had experienced a period of higher unemployment, and which countries had more or less generous family policies. The second part of our analysis was a regression analysis of TFR, unemployment and family policy variables. The results were in line with our first hypothesis: In our first analysis, the group of countries that were experiencing a period of higher unemployment also had a more negative development of fertility. In our regression analysis, we could observe a negative relationship between unemployment and fertility. On the other hand, our results could not support our second hypothesis: No individual family policy could be found to change the effect of unemployment on fertility levels.

A large amount of literature has addressed the relationship between women’s employment and fertility in the Western context. We have less relevant knowledge about the context of East Asia. This thesis addresses this situation by providing insight into how women’s employment is interrelated with their fertility in South Korea. I investigate women’s life-course transitions to motherhood, labor force return after childbearing, and second childbearing, respectively. Data used for my analyses come from the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS). My studies show that the traditional practice of leaving the labor market at an early stage of family life has gradually been replaced by a pattern of staying at work until and during pregnancy. Among wage earners, women with stable employment positions are more likely than others to become a mother. Further, women with a good labor market standing are more likely to return to the labor force immediately after childbirth without any career interruption. Still, a considerable number of women shift to homemaking after childbirth. The outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997 pushed mothers to hold tighter to the labor market than before. Labor force participation after first birth depresses women’s likelihood of having a second child. These studies suggest that a good labor market standing facilitates both motherhood entry and job continuity after childbirth in South Korea. However, the considerable number of women that shift to homemaking during motherhood and the depressed second birth rates of mothers in the labor force reveal that Korean women still face hardships when trying to combine work and family responsibilities. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p>

The advocacy of a high birth rate is an ideology called natalism. In the USA since 1985 some Protestants have used Old Testament verses to support natalist arguments. This thesis argues that natalism is inappropriate as a Christian application of Scripture, especially since rich nations’ populations’ total footprint is detrimental to biodiversity and to poor nations’ welfare. The methodology is analysis of natalist writings, investigation of possible historical roots, and then evaluation of natalist interpretation from three perspectives: the ancient Near Eastern OT context, patristic Christian tradition, and contemporary ecological concerns. The analysis and historical investigation consists of two chapters. Chapter 2 considers wider natalism, modern secular and religious varieties, and the cultural context of US Evangelicalism. Through textual analysis of biblical reception in recent natalist writings, it identifies the verses cited and common interpretative arguments. Chapter 3 asks whether this natalism has roots in historic Protestantism. It investigates the claim made by some natalist advocates that Martin Luther in the 16th century expounded similar ideas about fecundity. The evaluation consists of three chapters. Chapter 4 explores the ancient Near Eastern cultural context, and Old Testament ideas about fecundity’s role in God’s project of salvation. Ventures by biblical scholars into contemporary application of the verses in question are critiqued. Chapter 5 considers Augustine’s comments on human fruitfulness in the Bible and his thinking on fecundity. Using ressourcement from this representative of patristic tradition, Augustine’s reception is compared with natalism. Chapter 6 explains an ecological hermeneutic which brings biblical and classic Christian biblical reception into conversation with contemporary concerns. My reception of the verses uses a hermeneutic lens derived from Genesis 1, and gives priority to the contextual issues of biodiversity and the un/sustainability of the ecological footprints of overpopulated rich nations. The thesis is the first to offer systematic analysis of natalist biblical reception, and focuses on the neglected majority of natalists which accepts family planning. It highlights exegetical arguments which are then compared with Luther’s writings, tested against plausible meanings of the fruitful verses, and tested against Augustine and patristic tradition. Previous research on ecologically responsible interpretation of these verses and on Christian thinking about human fecundity and overpopulation is updated and extended in this dissertation.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Obstetrics and Gynaecology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a better understanding of race differences in women’s family formation behaviors, including non-marital birth and marriage. This research addresses three aims using data from various sources. The first aim is to examine the demographic factors that contribute to racial differences in non-marital fertility rates. The second research aim is to investigate how black men’s incarceration (admission rate, release rate, and conditional release rate from/to prisons) is related to black women’s non-marital fertility rate at the county level from 1985 to 2000. The last research aim is to examine how men’s incarceration (admission rate, release rate, and conditional release rate from/to prisons) is associated with women’s transition to first marriage and non-marital birth, and how this association differs by women’s race. To examine the first research aim, I employed a decomposition analysis and found that sexual activity and post-conception marriage no longer contribute to racial differences in non-marital fertility. Instead, the pregnancy rate among sexually active single (not cohabiting) women is the largest contributor to race-ethnic variation in non-marital fertility rates. More importantly, I find that contraceptive use patterns explain the majority of the race-ethnic differences in pregnancy rates. To pursue the second research aim, I used a fixed effects model and found that changes in black men’s incarceration are positively associated with changes in black women’s non-marital fertility rate between 1995 and 2000, even after adjusting for an extensive set of controls. Lastly, building on this finding, I also examined the relationship between men’s incarceration and women’s transition to first marriage and non-marital birth using a discrete time hazard model. The results indicate that county-level men’s incarceration is negatively associated with women’s transition to first marriage, even net of family background, individual women’s SES, and other county characteristics. Although county-level men’s incarceration contributes to the explanation of lower rates of transition to first marriage for women, it does not fully explain racial differences in marriage. Unlike marriage, women’s transition to first non-marital birth is not significantly affected by county-level men’s incarceration, net of women’s SES and family background. Altogether, this study updated our knowledge about the relative importance of marriage to racial differences in non-marital fertility and better explained racial differences in family formation behaviors, including non-marital fertility and marriage, by linking them with men’s incarceration. / text

Female golden Syrian hamsters are seasonally breeding animals, capable of maintaining continuous estrous cycles when the daylength is 12.5 hrs. or longer. In shorter photoperiod (SP) the ovaries of anovulatory animals are characterized by few small growing follicles, an absence of corpora lutea and extensive hypertrophied interstitium. Steroid-histochemical studies revealed that enzymes related to steroidogenesis show intense activity in the interstitial tissue of SP-exposed animals. The major objectives of these studies were to examine SP-induced hormonal and ovarian changes which occur prior to onset of the acyclic condition in inbred LSH/SsLak hamsters. Other experiments explored hormonal changes in the absence of ovarian hormones and the interaction of SP and steroids. Initial results revealed that the LSH/SsLak hamster ceased estrous cyclicity between 14 and 31 days of SP exposure, a response far more uniform than generally seen in outbred hamsters. Experiments carried out in SP-exposed cyclic animals indicated that the secondary FSH surge and follicular recruitment were not affected by SP treatment, follicular recruitment were not affected by SP treatment, and that no major changes in gonadotropin levels and ovarian steroids were present on individual days of the estrous cycle. Once the animals were anestrous, daily gonadotropin surges were present and pituitary gonadotropin contents increases. Serum PRL levels showed a slight, yet significant, decrease in SP cycling animals followed by a further reduction in pituitary and serum levels after animals ceased cycling. Medial basal hypothalamic LHRH contents did change in SP, yet there was a significant increase in the preoptic area, and LHRH became significantly elevated in both areas after the animals became anestrous. Ovarian histology revealed fewer corpora lutea and a slight shift from healthy to atretic antral follicles. Experiments carried out in ovariectomized SP-treated animals showed that serum gonadotropin levels were significantly reduced, and that estrogen treatment was either equally or less effective in reducing levels in SP animals. In contrast, PRL levels did not change and responded in a dose dependent way to estrogen treatment. Although the studies yielded no definite proof, the result suggest that SP impairs the maintenance of follicular growth leading eventually to the acyclic state.

Field experiments have been conducted for the past 19 seasons at three Arizona locations on University of Arizona Agricultural Centers (Maricopa, MAC; Marana, MAR; and Safford, SAC. aimed at investigating nitrogen (N) fertilizer management in irrigated cotton (Gossypium spp.) production. The MAC and SAC experiments have been conducted each season since 1989 and the Marana site was initiated in 1994. The original purposes of the experiments were to test N fertilization strategies and to validate and refine N fertilization recommendations for Upland (G. hirsutum L.) and American Pima (G. barbadense L.) cotton. The experiments have each utilized N management tools such as pre-season soil tests for NO₃⁻-N, in-season plant tissue testing (petioles) for N fertility status, and crop monitoring to ascertain crop fruiting patterns and crop N needs. At each location, treatments ranged from a conservative to a more aggressive approach of N management. The integrity of the experimental sites at each location was maintained in each consecutive season. Results at each location revealed a strong relationship between the crop fruit retention levels and N needs for the crop. This pattern was further reflected in final yield analysis as a response to the N fertilization regimes used. The higher, more aggressive N application regimes did not consistently benefit yields at any location. Generally, the more conservative, feedback approach to N management provided optimum yields at all locations. In 2001, a transition project evaluating the residual N effects associated with each treatment regime was initiated and no fertilizer N was applied. From 2001 to 2005 the residual N studies were conducted at two of these locations (MAC and MAR). In 2006, the residual N study was conducted only at MAC (the University of Arizona ceased operations at MAR at the end of the 2005 season). Therefore, all N taken-up by the crop was assumed to be derived from residual soil N. However irrigation water analysis showed that NO₃⁻-N concentration levels added to the crop ranged from about 5 to 15 ppm. In 2001- 2005 there were no significant differences among the original fertilizer N regimes in terms of residual soil NO₃⁻-N concentrations, crop growth, development, lint yield, or fiber properties. In 2006 however, significant differences in lint yield among N fertilization regimes for the Maricopa location were found. This suggests a possible pattern associated with the residual fertilizer N effects in relation to the original treatments at the Maricopa site.

The importance of residual soil nitrogen (N) in the production of upland cotton in Central Arizona has not been adequately studied. A subsurface drip irrigation experiment was conducted at the Maricopa Agricultural Center to examine the effect of residual soil nitrate content on lint yields of upland cotton, and to evaluate the validity of current cotton petiole nitrate interpretations under high yielding conditions. Different levels of water and N fertilizers applied to the plot area in previous years had resulted in a range of residual NO₃-N content ranging from 36 to 166 lbs /acre. Lint yields increased from 2.8 to 4.3 bales /acre as residual soil N increased from 5.7 to 27.7 ppm NO₃-N although the correlation between yield and soil N was relatively low. This was thought to be due to difficulty in obtaining soil samples that accurately reflect the true plant availability of N in soils irrigated with drip systems. The interpretation of cotton petiole data under high yielding conditions (> 4 bales/acre) proved to be essentially the same as that currently recommended for conventional furrow irrigated cotton.

Seedling emergence, plant establishment, plant height, and seed cotton yield for cotton grown with liquid sewage sludge were similar to the seedling emergence, plant establishment, plant height, and seed cotton yield for cotton grown with recommended inorganic fertilizer. High applications of liquid sewage sludge decreased water penetration in Pima clay loam soil.

Data on the potential salts and organics leaching under cotton fertilized with municipal sewage sludge is necessary to delineate best management practices when cotton is fertilized in this manner.