These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Determinants of rural and urban fertility differentials in Nigeria.
    Author: Chimere-Dan O.
    Journal: J Biosoc Sci; 1990 Jul; 22(3):293-303. PubMed ID: 2401673.
    Abstract:
    Whatever proximate variables are examined, their differential effects on rural and urban fertility are small. This indicates that no major disturbance has taken place in urban or rural reproductive norms. However, two possible reasons for the converging pattern of rural and urban fertility in Nigeria are identified. One is that urban mothers in the first half of the childbearing age range have higher fertility than their rural counterparts. The other is that breast-feeding and post-partum abstinence, which are the major determinants of marital fertility, exert a more depressing influence on rural than urban fertility. Multiple classification analysis was used to examine the determinants of urban and rural fertility in Nigeria. Data was obtained on 9729 women 15-49 years old from the 1981-82 Nigeria Fertility Survey. Findings indicate that fertility was higher only among urban women who had their first baby within 15 years before the survey. Rural fertility was higher among women with motherhood durations longer than 14 years before the survey. Differences between urban and rural fertility were small when examined by age, duration of marriage, and motherhood duration. Trends in the ratio of cumulative cohort fertility to the cumulative period fertility showed fertility decline among women under 35 years old. By marriage duration, urban fertility appeared to rise more rapidly. The inconsistencies in fertility patterns may reflect changes in entry into childbearing rather than changes in fertility. Being unmarried reduced overall fertility in both urban and rural areas, based on the multiple classification analysis of fertility determinants. Fertility was reduced by the never married state in all regions with the exception of the northwest. Fertility was reduced more in urban northern regions by marital disruption than rural areas; in the southeast marital disruption increased fertility. There was no impact in rural or urban areas in the southwest. Fertility reduction was greater in rural areas due to marital stability for all educational and religious groups with the exception of Koran-educated, Moslem and traditional religious groups. Contraceptive usage had no effect on fertility in the northeast and limited effects by other background variables. Contraceptive use had a greater effect among urban highly educated women. Breast feeding contributed to a greater effect on fertility in rural areas of the northeast. Breast feeding among religious groups showed a greater effect on fertility decline in rural areas. Postpartum abstinence for all religious groups had a greater fertility reducing impact. The general pattern was for greater fertility-inhibiting effects of marital instability, breast feeding, and abstinence in rural areas. The main determinants of marital fertility in urban and rural areas were breast feeding and postpartum sexual abstinence, which accounted for 80% of all reductions in marital fertility in urban and rural areas. Urban fertility may be rising due to shorter breast feeding and abstinence durations among young, urban, educated women.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]