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<p>This dissertation considers incentives arising from equilibrium influences that affect the sequence of decisions that lead to family formation. The first chapter examines how state regulations directly aimed at abortion providers affect the market for abortion in the United States. Estimates from a dynamic model of competition among abortion providers show that regulations' main impact is on the fixed costs of entry for providers. Simulations indicate that the removal of regulations would promote entry and competition among abortion providers, and because abortions are found to be price sensitive, this would lead to increases in the number of abortions observed. The second chapter tests if an important negative externality of abortion access exists, namely whether abortion access makes prospective fathers more likely to leave pregnant women. Designing a number of empirical tests, I confirm that in some areas where abortion is more accessible women who give birth are more likely to be single mothers, rather than sharing parental responsibility with the biological father. The final chapter, which is joint work with Peter Arcidiacono and Marjorie McElroy, examines how gender ratios influence bargaining power in romantic relationships between men and women. Gender ratios, by influencing the prospects of matching, allow us to estimate preferences for various match characteristics and activities. We find men prefer sexual relationships more than women at high school ages, and that men and women trade off their preferred partner for an increased chance of matching.</p> / Dissertation

<p>Research into how different life events shape individual religiosity has a long history within sociology. However, some scholars have begun to question whether research in this area has methodologically justified making strong causal claims. In an effort to re-center religion within the field of sociological concerns, quantitative sociologists of religion have tended to over-state the meaning of their statistical relationships and this has led to many of their causal assumptions being unstated and/or untested in their analyses. The advances in causal statistical modeling and counterfactually grounded analyses has led to the development of statistical models that are better able to establish causal relationships. It is time to begin implementing these approaches within the sociology of religion. This more rigorous statistical approach runs the risk of demonstrating that social life’s influence on religion may be less impressive than was previously thought. But researchers in this area must take this risk to develop a better sense of the real effects of society on religion. This in turn will provide a better foundation for developing theories of religion’s role in our modern world. </p><p> One way in which sociologists of religion can improve their causal modeling strategies is through the use of longitudinal data and methods. In recent years there has been a significant increase in the availability of large-scale longitudinal data that collects information on respondents’ religious belief, practice, and belonging. With these data, scholars interested in religious change can move away from their reliance on comparing individuals to one another – a constraint of cross-sectional data – and begin to analyze how certain life course events may lead to change in individual religiosity. I revisit two important areas within the sociology of religion –the relationship between family formation and religious service attendance and the effects of educational achievement on religious beliefs and practices – to assess whether these relationships can be considered causal in light of results from longitudinal statistical models. By implementing longitudinal models, I am able to directly assess whether between-individual differences or individual change over time is driving the statistical relationships found in my analyses. I will show that the story we thought we knew about how religion responds to family formation and educational attainment changes when these additional statistical tests are brought to bear on the data.</p> / Dissertation

This paper examines how the definition of family, within Federal public housing and welfare policy, corresponds with changes in family patterns in America from 1950 to 2000. The definition of family as used to determine welfare eligibility is extremely important not only for how it defines recipients of cash aid but also because of how it affects public housing clients. In the name of economic vitality, needy individuals might choose to define their family according to the lowest common denominator to gain access to both welfare and public housing, thus negating diverse forms of family. Since family definition serves as an important gate-keeping device for program benefits to otherwise eligible families, it is important to establish if policy definitions of family reflect changing patterns of need or perceived normative definitions of "proper" family form. While public housing policy is the focal point of this research, it is necessary to review both housing and welfare policy to ascertain the impact of welfare policy's definition on overlapping participants. The changes in policy definition will be juxtaposed with cultural and legal shifts in family form to explore the policy's interaction with larger social trends. Public housing and welfare policy beginning with their respective inaugural legislation, the Wagner-Steagall Housing Act of 1937 and the Social Security Act of 1934, and their subsequent revisions are examined to track modifications to family definition. U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Reports, Series P20-537, "America's Families and Living Arrangements" data from 1950-2000 and Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters (POSSLQ) forecasting have been used to track social trends related to family composition patterns. Additionally, Federal and State Supreme Court rulings related to family formation and Domestic Partner legislation in California and Vermont have been used to gauge the legal legitimacy of varying family forms. Among the study's findings is public housing legislation's ongoing broad definition of family, the degree of influence welfare policy has historically had on the family form of public housing residents, and public housing's new "mixed family". Recommendations for future research include an examination of public housing's new "mixed family" issue and an examination of the impact on family form of the current public housing and welfare legislation: Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

This dissertation explores the cultural and socioeconomic factors that influence adult role transitions in Ghana. Guided by a life course theoretical framework, and using a nationally representative survey (2003-2008 Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys), I estimate accelerated failure-time (AFT) log-normal models that control for the potential effects of unobserved heterogeneity due to the possible omission of certain relevant covariates. The models reveal that when the most optimal hazard distribution function is specified in an event history model, the problem of unobserved heterogeneity becomes significantly reduced. Results from both non-parametric and parametric models suggest a convergence in marriage and parenthood timing among contemporary young women and young men in Ghana compared with their older cohort, highlighting the salience of sociocultural timing on individuals’ life course decisions. The study also utilizes qualitative data from 30 in-depth interviews conducted in Aburi in the Eastern Region of Ghana, during the summer of 2010. The qualitative approach complements the survey methods by uncovering the influential role of the religious institution, a growing sense of individualism, as well as an emerging consumerist culture on family formation decisions in Ghana. Overall, the findings from this study indicate that the spread of information technology in the rapidly globalizing world has had differential effects on two birth cohorts in Ghana. / Thesis (Ph.D, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-12-19 15:00:23.689

A multitude of research exists examining the relationship between religion and early marriage, yet little research has focused on the relationship between religion and early childbearing. Even less has examined the influence of adolescent religion on early parenthood. Using data from the National Study of Youth and Religion, I examined the relationship between religion in adolescence and parenthood outcomes in early adulthood. I focus on how religiosity in adolescence shapes whether an individual is more or less likely to be sexually active, become pregnant, and/or have and keep a child. Results suggest that those who are religious in adolescence are less likely to have children early because of the postponement of sexual debut.

I denna uppsats har jag valt att skriva om unga kvinnors tankar kring karriär, familjeliv och identitet. Dessa ämnen är saker som jag tror att de flesta upplever eller har upplevt att det finns många tankar och frågor kring, och jag vill genom min studie ge dessa kvinnors bild av hur man får livspusslet att gå ihop och hur tankar kring identitet, karriär och familjeliv kring detta kan se ut. Jag kommer att skriva om detta utifrån två synsätt, dels från det individuella planet, där jag utgår från mina intervjuer och berättar om mina informanters tankar, dels ur ett bredare perspektiv där jag sätter informanternas berättelser i ett större samanhang, men fokus på unga människors situation i Sverige. / In this paper, I have chosen to write about young women's thoughts on career, family life and identity. These substances are things that I think most people are experiencing or have experienced that there are many thoughts and questions about, and I want through my study give these women's view of how to get the puzzle of life go together and how ideas about identity, career and family around this might look like. I will write about this from two points of view, and from the individual level, where I use my interviews to talk about my informant thoughts, and from a broader perspective where I put narratives in a wider context, but the focus is on young people's situation in Sweden.

This thesis contains four empirical studies that examine patterns in family formation in Sweden around the turn of the new millennium. This is an interesting context for the topic because Sweden is often seen as a forerunner in family-demographic change as well as in gender equality and value developments. The empirical studies provide insight into the state of affairs of these developments. In all four studies, event-history analyses are applied to Swedish population register data. Two of the studies focus on first-marriage formation, while the other two focus on first childbearing. Study I reveals that starting from 1998 there was an increase in marriage-formation rates, which was not due to compositional changes in the population. This is in contrast to the common image of Sweden in the forefront of contemporary marriage decline. Study II shows that marriage rates for men and women display clear peaks at exact ages 30, 40, 50, and 60 as well as in the year 2000. The peaks demonstrate that in Sweden, marriage formation is not fully determined by conventional structural factors or individual characteristics. It illustrates that the choice to marry may be taken quite lightly in a context where differences between cohabitation and marriage are relatively small. Study III shows that the transition to parenthood varies across occupational groups. For both men and women, birth rates are positively related to own earnings. Birth rates are also high for those who work in a caring or teaching oriented occupation or in a gender-typical occupation. The findings may reflect differences in the possibility to take on parental responsibilities and they demonstrate the role of gendered behavior. Self-selection processes may also be important. In Study IV, the transition to parenthood for men and women is examined in relation to the sex composition of the workplace. Birth rates increase with the share of employees of the individual’s own sex, net of factors such as own earnings, public or private sector employment, occupation, and industry. This shows the importance of gender and gender structures in the work environment for childbearing behavior. / Denna avhandling består av ett introduktionskapitel och fyra empiriska studier som undersöker mönster i familjebildning i Sverige kring millennieskiftet. Detta är en intressant kontext för ämnet eftersom Sverige ofta ses som en föregångare inom familjedemografisk utveckling och jämställdhets- och värderingsförändringar. I samtliga studier tillämpas livsförloppsanalys på registerdata över befolkningen. De två första studierna fokuserar på förstagångsäktenskap och de andra två på barnafödande. Studie I visar att från 1998 skedde en uppgång av giftermålstalen, som inte berodde på sammansättningsförändringar i befolkningen. Detta står i kontrast till den typiska bilden av Sverige som föregångare i en allmän nedåtgående giftermålstrend. Studie II visar att giftermålstalen för män och kvinnor uppvisar tydliga toppar vid ”jämna” åldrar (30, 40, 50 och 60) samt under år 2000. Topparna åskådliggör att i Sverige formas giftermålsbeslut inte helt av konventionella strukturella faktorer eller individuella egenskaper. Detta kan spegla att i en kontext där skillnaderna mellan samboende och äktenskap är relativt små kan giftermålsbeslut fattas relativt lättvindigt. Studie III visar att benägenheten att skaffa ett första barn varierar mellan yrkesgrupper. För både män och kvinnor är födelsetalen positivt relaterade till inkomster och till arbete inom omsorg och utbildning. Detta återspeglar sannolikt skillnader i möjligheten att försörja en familj och att ta ansvar för omsorg av eventuella barn samt att män och kvinnor troligtvis väljer yrken som passar deras intressen. Benägenheten att skaffa barn är också större för de med könstypiska yrken, vilket indikerar att könsrollssocialisering spelar en central roll.  I studie IV undersöks sambandet mellan arbetsplatsens könssammansättning och benägenheten att skaffa ett första barn. För både män och kvinnor är benägenheten att skaffa barn högre ju större andel av kollegorna som tillhör ens eget kön. Detta visar att genus och könsstrukturer i arbetsmiljön kan påverka barnafödandebeslut. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p> / Welfare, Labor-market Status and Family Dynamics / Register-based Research in Nordic Demography

Cette thèse se compose de trois essais indépendants dont le dénominateur commun est d'étudier le rôle du contexte institutionnel et de l'environnement social dans lesquels se décident les trajectoires scolaires, professionnelles et familiales. Une moitié environ des lycées parisiens (les plus prestigieux) reçoivent chaque année davantage de demandes d'admission de la part des collégiens qu’ils n'ont de places disponibles. Le logiciel d'affection utilisé (Affelnet) est contraint de définir, pour chacun de ces lycées, un niveau minimum (en termes de note moyenne obtenue en troisième) nécessaire pour l'admission. En comparant les trajectoires des derniers collégiens admis dans des lycées parisiens sélectifs avec celles des premiers recalés, nous montrons dans le premier chapitre que l'accès à un établissement scolaire sélectif n'a aucun impact sur les performances ultérieures au baccalauréat, mais un impact très négatif sur la propension des jeunes lycéennes à s'orienter dans la filière générale scientifique en fin de seconde. Dans le contexte parisien, l’accès à un lycée sélectif s’accompagne surtout d’une amélioration du niveau académique des camarades de classe, notamment en science. Nos résultats concorderaient donc avec les travaux d’économie et psychologie expérimentale suggérant que les filles seraient plus réticentes que les garçons à choisir des voies compétitives. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur les effets des politiques de redoublement en classes préparatoires scientifiques, en distinguant les effets directs observés pour les redoublants eux-mêmes et les effets indirects induits sur les autres élèves au moment de la préparation des concours. Nous montrons que les redoublements ont des effets très largement positifs pour les redoublants eux-mêmes, mais que la présence de nombreux redoublants dans une classe a des effets plutôt négatifs pour les autres élèves, notamment quand ces redoublants sont forts académiquement. Plus une classe compte de redoublants de haut niveau académique (niveau mesuré lors de leur première participation aux concours) plus les nouveaux arrivants sont en difficulté au moment des concours, alors que les performances des nouveaux arrivants sont largement insensibles au nombre de redoublants de niveau moyen ou faible. Les redoublements ne semblent pas influer sur les autres élèves parce qu'ils contribuent à surcharger les classes, mais parce qu'ils en modifient le profil et peuvent induire les enseignants à produire des cours d'un niveau trop ambitieux. Le troisième chapitre s'intéresse aux conséquences pour les trajectoires familiales de l'institutionnalisation des emplois précaires et des difficultés accrues rencontrées par les jeunes adultes pour s'insérer durablement dans l'emploi. Nous y développons une analyse de durée à partir du modèle d'Abbring et van den Berg (2003) et de deux enquêtes rétrospectives sur de larges échantillons de jeunes adultes, et montrons que l'accès à l'emploi stable constitue une étape bien plus décisive que l’accès à un emploi précaire pour la mise en couple et l'arrivée des premiers enfants. Ainsi, entre les générations nées au milieu des années cinquante et celles nées au début des années soixante-dix, la montée de la part des emplois précaires et du chômage des jeunes expliquerait environ 25% des retards observés dans l'âge de mise en couple, et 40% des retards dans l'âge au premier enfant. / This thesis is composed of three independent essays studying the role of the schooling and social environment in which individuals make their educational, work or family decisions. The first chapter studies the impact of enrollment at a more selective Parisian high school on students' performance and choice of field of study. We compare students' educational outcomes depending on whether their 9th grade standardized score fell just above or below an admission threshold, and we find that enrollment at a more selective high school has no impact on students' performance but induces female students to turn away from scientific fields and settle for less competitive ones. Our results are consistent with lab-experiment findings on gender differences in attitude towards competition and bad grades. The second chapter analyzes grade repetition in higher education and focuses on the spillover effects induced by grade repeaters on undergraduate freshmen. We distinguish between spillovers effects induced by higher- or lower- achieving repeaters to disentangle class size from composition effects, and we find that grade repetition generates little congestion effects but has important negative composition effects. We show that the performances of freshmen are very sensitive to the number of higher-achieving repeaters while they are not impacted by the number of lower-achieving repeaters. One potential mechanism would be distortion in teaching practices. The last chapter studies the impact of temporary contracts and youth unemployment to explain observed delays in age at first cohabiting relationship and in age at first child. Using French data on the work and family history of large samples of young adults, this chapter provides evidence that access to permanent jobs has a much stronger impact than access to temporary jobs for family formation. According to our estimates, about 25% of the increase in age at first cohabitation and about 40% of the increase in age at first child observed during the second half of the century can be explained by the rise in unemployment and in the share of temporary jobs among young workers.

This study examined mothers who have undergone gamete donation treatment and lack a genetic connection to their adolescent children. The study examined the mothers experience of closeness and similarity with their child, as well as their feelings regarding the child's ability to seek information and contact the donor. Experiences regarding talking to the child and others, as well as their potential desire for support were explored. The study is based on data from the longitudinal study Swedish Study of Gamete Donations (SSGD), which has collected data in five rounds since 2005. Using a mixed-methods design the current study compared egg donation mothers in heterosexual couples (n=41) and non-carrying mothers in lesbian couples (n=59). Participants responded to surveys containing rating scales and free text responses. The material was analyzed using chi2-, Mann-Whitney U-, and t-tests, as well as qualitative content analysis. The majority in both groups reported high levels of closeness to their children and more often perceived similarity in personality than appearance. Participants primarily reported positive emotions related to their child’s ability to access information about and contact the donor. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups. Some qualitative differences emerged regarding feelings about discussing the donation. A few mothers from both groups expressed a need for support. The study contributes to a broader understanding of mothers who have undergone gamete donation treatment and how interventions for these mothers can be devised. Additionally, the study confirms that these groups generally have close relationships with their children. / Studien har undersökt mammor som genomgått donationsbehandling och inte har genetisk koppling till sitt, idag tonåriga, barn. Studien undersökte mammornas upplevelse av närhet och likhet med sitt barn samt vilka känslor de har inför barnets möjlighet att söka information och ta kontakt med donatorn. Även upplevelser kring att prata med barnet och andra om donationen samt vilket eventuellt stöd mammorna önskar undersöktes. Studien bygger på data från den longitudinella studien Swedish Study of Gamete Donations (SSGD) som samlat in data i fem omgångar sedan 2005. Studien använde en mixad design för att jämföra grupperna äggdonations-mammor i heterosexuella par (n=41) och icke-bärande mammor i lesbiska par (n=59). Deltagarna har besvarat enkäter som innehöll skattningsskalor och öppna frågor. Materialet analyserades genom chi2-, Mann-Whitney U-, och t-test samt kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Majoriteten i båda grupperna upplevde hög nivå av närhet till sina barn och upplevde oftare likhet i personlighet än utseende. Deltagarna rapporterade primärt positiva känslor relaterade till barnens möjlighet till information om och kontakt med donatorn. Det fanns inga statistiskt signifikanta skillnader mellan grupperna. Dock fanns vissa kvalitativa skillnader gällande känslor och motivation till att prata om donationen. Ett fåtal mammor ur båda grupperna efterfrågade stöd. Studien bidrar till en bredare förståelse för mammor som genomgått donationsbehandling och hur insatser för dessa kan utformas samt bekräftar att dessa grupper generellt har nära relationer till sina barn.