Female genital cutting (FGC) continues to be widespread particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. We use data from the 1999 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey to consider factors that influence attitudes toward this procedure held by Nigerian women aged 15–49. We test four models: model 1 explores whether attitudes are consistent with a view of FGC as a social convention associated with marriageability of women. Model 2 examines the impact of modernization factors such as education and urbanization. In model 3, the influence of media and community activities are considered. Model 4 includes all of the factors in the three previous models. We find strong support for considering FGC a social convention. Modernization has minimal impact on attitudes about FGC mainly through its influence on the social convention. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007Female genital cutting, Health, Modernization, Women,

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This research investigates Stouffer's theory of intervening opportunities applied to disaggregated migration flows. Flows and opportunities are classified into functional categories composed of industrial types. Analysis of 1970 Public Use Sample data indicates that the theory of intervening opportunities does not represent all migration flows. The spatial distribution of opportunities influences more those migrant populations in the later stage of the production sequence, drawn to dense distributions of opportunities. The model's ineffectiveness for migrants engaged in functions more immediately dependent upon resource extraction possibly reflects the failure to consider nonfunctional opportunities and suggests the need for a more meaningful method of operationalizing the opportunities concepts.

"This paper examines how living in a single parent family affects intergenerational marriage patterns regarding preferred family size. Data collected from 1,300 college students at a large midwestern [U.S.] university provide further evidence of a positive relationship between number of siblings in one's family of origin and preferred marital family size. However, this relationship does not hold for all groups. Factors affecting preferred family size differ for males and females from intact and nonintact family structures. The positive relationship between size of family of orientation and family of procreation holds only for individuals from intact homes."