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  • Title: [Spacing and limiting components of the fertility transition in Latin America].
    Author: Rodriguez G.
    Journal: Notas Poblacion; 1992 Dec; 20(56):57-86. PubMed ID: 12287036.
    Abstract:
    Trends in marital fertility according to rural or urban residence, wife's educational level, and husband's occupation are analyzed for 6 Latin American countries which participated in both the World Fertility Survey and Demographic and Health Surveys. The countries were Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. The principal methodological tool for this analysis is a statistical model of period marital fertility which expresses fertility as a function of spacing, which is assumed to operate equally in all durations of union, and of limiting, which increases in importance as the duration of union increases. The model permits a summary description of the levels and patterns of marital fertility and yields parameters that may be interpreted in terms of basic behavioral mechanisms, such as lactation and contraception. Total marital fertility in the 6 countries decreased in the recent past, with the magnitude of decline varying from .4 births/woman in Trinidad and Tobago to 2.2 in Mexico. The results indicate that the transition originated in an educated urban minority and has spread to almost all strata studied. Most of the observed fertility decline resulted from birth limitation, but spacing played a surprisingly large role. Despite the diversity of conditions in the 6 countries, the indices of spacing and limiting in the different social strata appeared to have followed a single pattern of increase over time. Although the trajectory followed by the indices of spacing and limiting is sufficiently broad to accomodate substantial differences between the countries, it is well defined, indicating that a common explanation exists. It is demonstrated that the pattern of increase is consistent with a simple mathematical model of social diffusion.
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