Education as policy: the impact of education on marriage, contraception, and fertility in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia

Using data from the World Fertility and Demographic and Health Surveys of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, we model the effects of education on three demographic outcomes: the timing of first sexual union, contraceptive use, and fertility. These effects are examined over time and across geographic areas using a multivariate framework. We find substantial improvements in female educational attainment over the last fifty years and a strong relationship between education and the demographic outcomes. Each successive increment in education is associated with declines in the marriage rate, increased contraceptive use, and lower fertility. Education accounts for some of the changes over time in the demographic outcomes, but the pattern varies by outcome, time period, and geographic area. In support of the social diffusion hypothesis, our results indicate that educational differences in reproductive behavior are reduced as the level of development increases and societies pass through their demographic transition.     

Urban agricultural economy of the Early Islamic southern Levant: a case study of Ashkelon

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany - Archaeobotanical research in the southern Levant has focused on the development of agriculture and urban societies, but less so on how agriculture sustained...     

Adolescent obesity and life satisfaction: Perceptions of self,peers, family,and school

This study contributes to research on adolescent life satisfaction by considering its association with body weight, as mediated by perceptions of self, peers, family, and school. Data from the Health Behaviors in School-Age Children Survey (2001–2002) and OLS regression techniques are used to examine the association between body weight and life satisfaction. We also model these relationships by gender. Results indicate lower life satisfaction among adolescents that are overweight and obese relative to healthy weight youth, and that most of the negative association operates through perceptions of self, peers, parents, and school. We find little or no gender difference in the association between body weight and perceptions of self, peers, parents, and school; however, we find perceptions of body weight are generally more strongly associated with low life satisfaction among girls compared to boys.