Demographic transition: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:46, 22 December 2024

Revision as of 23:41, 26 December 2024

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* In rural areas continued decline in childhood death meant that at some point parents realized that they did not need as many children to ensure a comfortable old age. As childhood death continues to fall and incomes increase, parents can become increasingly confident that fewer children will suffice to help in family business and care for them at old age.

* Increasing [[urbanization]] changes the traditional values placed upon fertility and the value of children in rural society. Urban living also raises the cost of dependent children to a family. A recent theory suggests that urbanization also contributes to reducing the birth rate because it disrupts optimal mating patterns. A 2008 study in Iceland found that the most fecund marriages are between distant cousins. Genetic incompatibilities inherent in more distant out breeding makes reproduction harder.<ref>{{Citation | title= Third Cousins Have Greatest Number Of Offspring, Data From Iceland Shows | url= https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207140855.htm | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210102112300/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207140855.htm | url-status= dead | archive-date= 2 January 2021 | journal= ScienceDaily | date = 8 February 2008}}.</ref>

* In both rural and urban areas, the cost of children to parents is exacerbated by the introduction of compulsory education acts and the increased need to educate children so they can take up a respected position in society. Children are increasingly prohibited under law from working outside the household and make an increasingly limited contribution to the household, as school children are increasingly exempted from the expectation of making a significant contribution to domestic work. Even in equatorial Africa, children (under the age underof 5) are now required to have clothes and shoes, and may even requireneed school uniforms. Parents begin to consider it a duty to buy children('s) books and toys,. partlyPartly due to education and access to family planning, people begin to reassess their need for children and their ability to raise them.<ref name=Caldwell5/>

[[File:Familyplanningmalaysia.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|A major factor in reducing birth rates in stage&nbsp;3 countries such as Malaysia is the availability of family planning facilities, like this one in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia.]]

* Increasing literacy and employment lowers the uncritical acceptance of childbearing and motherhood as measures of the status of women. Working women have less time to raise children; this is particularly an issue where fathers traditionally make little or no contribution to child-raising, such as [[southern Europe]] or [[Japan]]. Valuation of women beyond childbearing and motherhood becomes important.