Methodology for the Measurement of Current Fertility From Population Data on Young Children

Abstract

RESUMEN En la mayoría de los países las estadísticas vitales son inadecuadas

Two period measures for comparing the fertility of marriage and cohabitation

“…Unlike biographical data, census data provide provincial subsamples of sizes that allow us to estimate ASFRs using one-year intervals for the two provinces we are comparing. Using the own-children method (Grabill and Cho 1965;Rindfuss 1976;Cho, Retherford, and Choe 1986) and focusing on births that occurred in the 12-month period before the census allows us to produce estimates of all the quantities we wish to estimate. This level of precision allows the graphing of cumulative fertility  F x and F sx as a function of age  and the contribution of each conjugal state to cumulative fertility  A sx F as a function of age.…”

Childbearing within Marriage and Consensual Union in Latin America, 1980–2010

“…Using the number of children less than five years old allowed comparability with the "fertility ratio", a measure based on this number and commonly used at the time the original authors introduced the method. The most obvious difficulties and limitations of this method are establishing the relationship between mother and child from census records, census undercoverage of children and women, infant mortality, and children who do not live with their mother (Grabill and Cho 1965).…”

Methodological Difficulties Encountered in Using Own-Children Data: Illustrations from the United States.

“…If own-children data were used as recorded by the census, four implicit assumptions would be involved (Grabill and Cho, 1965;Cho, Grabill, and Bogue, 1970;Rctherford and Cho, 1974): (I) that ages of children are correctly reported; (2) that all children reside with their mothers; (3) that mortality is negligible for women and children; and (4) that all women and children are covered by the census. Elsewhere, I have shown that even when these four assumptions are not met, and a complete set of adjustment factors is not available-a fairly typical situation-census data on own children can be used to accurately estimate past fertility trends (both for such summary indices as total fertility rates and for age-specific rates), but that such data can be misleading regarding levels (Rindfuss, 1976).…”

“…The effect of this change can be seen by looking at the numbers of Filipinos admitted to the United States. Between 1953 and1965, the average number of Filipinos coming to the United States was 2,477. By 1968, this number had increased to 16,391 (Keely, 1971), and in 1969, 23,339 were admitted (Tidalgo, 1974).…”

“…If a child cannot be matched to a "mother" residing in the same household, it is not defined as an "own child" and is thus excluded. Since the use of own-children data has been described elsewhere (Grabill and Cho, 1965;Cho, 1968;Cho, Grabill, and Bogue, 1970;Cho, 1971;Rethcrford and Cho, 1.974;Cho, 1973), a lengthy exposition is unnecessary here; it will be assumed that the reader is familiar with this literature, particularly the construction of annual, age-specific fertility rates from census data.…”