Rocking the Cradle: Downsizing the New England Family

Main, Gloria L.

doi:10.1162/jinh.2006.37.1.35

Cited by 23 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Modern studies of the mid nineteenth-century fertility have confirmed that the native-born population of New England was on the vanguard of the fertility transition (Main 2006, Hacker 1999). The foreign born population lagged well behind, suggesting the persistence of customs and values opposed to the practice of birth control (Vinovskis 1982; Atack and Bateman 1987; Forster and Tucker 1972; Hareven and Vinovskis 1975).…”

Section: Measurement Of Nativity and Religiositymentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of kin availability, parental religiosity, and nativity on fertility differentials in the late 19th-century United States

Hacker¹,

Roberts²

2017

DemRes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

METHODS Most quantitative research on fertility decline in the United States ignores the potential impact of cultural and familial factors. We rely on new complete-count data from the 1880 U.S. census to construct couple-level measures of nativity/ethnicity, religiosity, and kin availability. We include these measures with a comprehensive set of demographic, economic, and contextual variables in Poisson regression models of net marital fertility to assess their relative importance. We construct models with and without area fixed effects to control for unobserved heterogeneity. CONTRIBUTION All else being equal, we find a strong impact of nativity on recent net marital fertility. Fertility differentials among second generation couples relative to the native-born white population of native parentage were in most cases less than half of the differential observed among first generation immigrants, suggesting greater assimilation to native-born American childbearing norms. Our measures of parental religiosity and familial propinquity indicated a more modest impact on marital fertility. Couples who chose biblical names for their children had approximately 3% more children than couples relying on secular names while the presence of a potential mother-in-law in a nearby households was associated with 2% more children. Overall, our results demonstrate the need for more inclusive models of fertility behavior that include cultural and familial covariates.

show abstract

Section: Measurement Of Nativity and Religiositymentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of kin availability, parental religiosity, and nativity on fertility differentials in the late 19th-century United States

Hacker¹,

Roberts²

2017

DemRes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite low marital fertility rates, however, m values in New England and the Middle Atlantic census regions indicate little evidence of parity-dependent control until after 1850. If women in the Northeast were consciously controlling their fertility in the first half of the century, they were doing so by increasing the length of the intervals between births at lower parities (Main 2006). …”

Section: New Regional Estimates Of Marital Fertility Using the Ipums mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ready, Willing, and Able? Impediments to the Onset of Marital Fertility Decline in the United States

Hacker

2016

Demography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study relies on IPUMS samples of the 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses, aggregate census data, and the timing of state laws criminalizing abortion to construct regional estimates of marital fertility in the United States and estimate correlates of marital fertility. The results show a significant lag between the onset of marital fertility decline in the nation’s northeastern census divisions and its onset in western and southern census divisions. Empirical models indicate the presence of cultural, economic, and legal impediments to the diffusion of marital fertility control and illustrate the need for more inclusive models of fertility decline.

show abstract

“…Recently, Main (2006) investigated some of Hacker's ideas by studying genealogies of several thousand couples who lived in southern New England in the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Consistent with his argument, she found an increase in the age of marriage for wives (roughly a year in the ¿ rst half of the nineteenth century) and ¿ a noteworthy decline in survivorship to adulthood for children during the ¿rst half of the ¿ nineteenth century.…”

Section: Research On the Us Fertility Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertility in New York state in the pre-civil war era

Haines

Guest

2008

Demography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Knowledge is quite limited about the extent and social correlates of marital fertility decline for the United States in the early part of the nineteenth century. Manuscripts from the New York State census of 1865 indicate a very slow decline in marital fertility during the initial decades of the nineteenth century and more rapid decline as the Civil War approached. Little evidence of fertility control within marriage is found for the very oldest women in the sample, but analysis of parity progression ratios indicates that some control had emerged by the midpoint of the nineteenth century. Fertility decline was most evident in the urban, more economically developed areas, but our data also indicate that the limited availability of agricultural land may have affected the transition. While a marital fertility transition occurred in nineteenth-century New York, many couples in various geographic areas and social strata continued to have quite high levels of fertility, indicating difficulties that were probably faced in controlling reproduction.

show abstract

Rocking the Cradle: Downsizing the New England Family

Cited by 23 publications

References 9 publications

The impact of kin availability, parental religiosity, and nativity on fertility differentials in the late 19th-century United States

The impact of kin availability, parental religiosity, and nativity on fertility differentials in the late 19th-century United States

Ready, Willing, and Able? Impediments to the Onset of Marital Fertility Decline in the United States

Fertility in New York state in the pre-civil war era

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About