Father Absence and Reproduction-Related Outcomes in Malaysia,a Transitional Fertility Population

Father absence is consistently associated with children’s reproductive outcomes in industrialized countries. It has been suggested that father absence acts as a cue to particular environmental conditions that influence life history strategies. Much less is known, however, about the effects of father absence on such outcomes in lower-income countries. Using data from the 1988 Malaysian Family Life Survey (n?=?567), we tested the effect of father absence on daughters’ age at menarche, first marriage, and first birth; parity progression rates; and desired completed family size in Malaysia, a country undergoing an economic and fertility transition. Father absence during later childhood (ages 8 to 15), although not during earlier childhood, was associated with earlier progressions to first marriage and first birth, after controlling for other confounders. Father absence does not affect age at menarche, desired family size, or progression from first to second birth. The patterns found in this transitional population partly mirror those in developed societies, where father absence accelerates reproductive events. There is, however, a notable contrast between the acceleration in menarche for father-absent girls consistently found in developed societies and the lack of any association in our findings. The mechanisms through which father absence affects reproduction may differ in different ecological contexts. In lower-income contexts, direct paternal investment or influence may be of more importance in determining reproductive behavior than whether fathers act as a cue to environmental conditions.     

Film, Ethnography, and the Senses: The Corporeal Image

Film, Ethnography, and the Senses: The Corporeal Image . David MacDougall. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 274 pp.     

Children's Television,Radio, Internet,and Computer Usage in a City and a Village of China

A first step in understanding media consumption is to understand the time people spend using media, and how usage varies across demographic groups and in response to other factors. While there is ample research from the West, research from China is less evident. Here I provide a case study of children's media usage in a rural and an urban area in China. The findings showed that a greater proportion of children in the urban sample used media such as television, Internet, and computer games, and that rural–urban residency had the most significant influence on television viewing. Further, more urban children reported their parents had concerns about media usage, whereas a greater proportion of children in the rural area had televisions in their bedrooms and ate meals while watching television. This difference was explained by differences in socio-economic levels, traditional values, and educational background. The findings show that the rural–urban difference, and other factors such as parental concern, should be considered when conducting and interpreting media consumption. There also are implications for health because a large proportion of children in the present study had televisions in their bedrooms and ate while watching television, and such behaviors in the West have been associated with unhealthy lifestyles.