Ex-nuptially Conceived Births: a Note on Measurement

Mapping the Sociology of Health and Medicine

“…Willis was born in New Zealand but arrived in Australia in the late 1970s to pursue doctoral studies. This sociologist produced a significant treatise on the division of labour in medicine (Willis 1983), and subsequently followed an almost exclusive interest in the health sector (Willis 1979(Willis , 1988(Willis , 1994(Willis , 1998Daly et al 1987Daly et al , 1992 The publications of the 1980s reflect a continuing concern with fertility, contraception, and reproduction (Callan 1980;Montague 1980;Mugford and Lally 1980;Betts 1980Betts , 1981Caldwell 1984;Neuendorff 1986;de Lepervanche 1989;Klein 1989). They also indicate an intensification of interest in medicalisation, professionalisation, and medical dominance (Gibson and Boreham 1981;Gibson 1985;Wilson and Gorring 1985;Turner 1986b), in capitalism (Braithwaite 1984), social movements (Osborne 1984), and inequalities such as disabilities (Rubinstein 1982;Rees and Emerson 1983;Sutton and Beran 1983).…”

“…Weberian, Durkheimian, interactionist and constructionist perspectives were still in evidence (Willis 1983(Willis , 1988George 1984;Hopkins 1989). Empirical papers were generally quantitative (Betts 1981;Najman et al 1983;Ryan and Dent 1984;Neil and Jones 1988;Minichiello 1989), but there was considerable excitement in the sociological community over the development of Lyn and Tom Richards' (1981) new software for the analysis of qualitative data; and Yolande Wadsworth's (1984) manual for qualitative evaluation research. For the first time, there was a sufficiency of Australian materials for research and textbooks for teaching the sociology of health and medicine.…”

Non-marital pregnancies in New Zealand since the Second World War

“…Others have recognized the need for an index which treats all births resulting from non-marital intercourse in relation to a single population at risk, and which can be partitioned according to their eventual marital status. Betts' (1981) suggestion is unsatisfactory (Carmichael, 1982b(Carmichael, , 1984b. Earlier Ruzicka (1975) developed a method for estimating, at a census, the prevalence of non-marital pregnancy leading to marital and non-marital confinement.…”

On the Measurement of Fertility Associated With Ex-Nuptial Conceptions: a Response To Betts

“…ON THE MEASUREMENT OF FERTILITY ASSOCIATED WITH EX-NUPTIAL CONCEPTIONS: A RESPONSE TO BETTS In a recent issue of the ANZJS Betts (1981) discussed the measurement of trends and differentials in ex-nuptially conceived births. In her paper she begins by noting, as many previous writers have, that neither the numbers of ex-nuptial and premaritally conceived nuptial births nor the proportions these represent of all births are particularly useful indices Indeed they may be positively misleading.…”