Furstenberg, Frank F
Email Address
ORCID
Disciplines
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
Publication A Sequence-Analysis Approach to the Study of the Transition to Adulthood in Low- and Middle-Income Countries(2020-06-09) Sironi, Maria; Barban, Nicola; Pesando, Luca Maria; Furstenberg, Frank F.This study investigates whether young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have experienced processes of de-standardization of the life course similar to those observed in high-income societies. We provide two contributions to the relevant literature. First, we use data from 263 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) across 69 LMICs, offering the richest comparative account of women’s transition to adulthood (TTA) patterns in the developing world existing to date. In so doing, we shift the focus from individual life-course transitions towards a holistic approach that allows us to characterize the life-course complexity by detailed sequences of events, namely first sexual intercourse, first union, and first birth. Second, using a clustering algorithm based on optimal-matching distances of lifecourse sequences, we identify clusters of TTA and explore their changes across cohorts by region and urban/rural location of residence. Results stress the importance of investigating cross-regional differences in partnership and fertility trajectories by looking at the interrelation and complexity of status combinations. Summarizing the ensuing heterogeneity through four clusters, we document significant differences by macro-regions yet relative stability across cohorts. We interpret the latter as suggestive of cultural specificities that make the TTA resistant to change and slow to converge across regions, if converging at all.Publication Family Change and Variation Through the Lens of Family Configurations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries(2021-09-27) Castro Torres, Andrés Felipe; Pesando, Luca Maria; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Furstenberg, Frank F.Using 254 Demographic and Health Surveys from 75 low- and middle-income countries, this study shows how the joint examination of family characteristics across rural and urban areas provides new insights for understanding global family change. We operationalize this approach by building family configurations: a set of interrelated features that describe different patterns of family formation and structure. These features include partnership (marriage/unions) regimes and their stability, gender relations, household composition, and reproduction. Factorial and clustering techniques allow us to summarize these family features into three factorial axes and six discrete family configurations. We provide an in-depth description of these configurations, their spatial distribution, and their changes over time. Global family change is uneven because it emerges from complex interplays between the relative steadiness of longstanding arrangements for forming families and organizing gender relations, and the rapidly changing dynamics observed in the realms of fertility, contraception, and timing of family formation.Publication Union Formation, Within-Couple Dynamics, and Child Well-Being in Global Comparative Perspective(2022-02-15) Batyra, Ewa; Pesando, Luca Maria; Castro, Andrés F.; Furstenberg, Frank F.; Kohler, Hans-PeterStudies on global changes in families have greatly increased over the past decade, adopting both a country-specific and, more recently, a cross-national comparative perspective. While most studies are focused on the drivers of global changes in families, little comparative research has explored the implications of family processes for the health and well-being of children. This study aims to fill this gap and launch a new research agenda exploring the intergenerational implications of union-formation and within-couple dynamics for children’s health and well-being across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), both globally, regionally, and by the stage of fertility transition. We do so by adopting a multi-axis conceptualization of children’s outcomes – health at birth, health in later life, and schooling – and leveraging Demographic and Health Survey and World Bank data across 75 LMICs. Our results show that in settings where partnerships are characterized by more equal status between spouses – i.e., where the age range between spouses and differences in years of schooling between partners are narrower – their offspring fare better on several outcomes. These associations are particularly strong in mid- and high-fertility settings. Despite a series of regularities, our results also highlight a set of findings whereby, at a macro-level, the prevalence of marriage and divorce/separation are not invariably associated with children’s outcomes, especially in LMICs where fertility is comparatively lower. We document little cross-regional heterogeneity, primarily highlighting the centrality of demographic factors such as age vis-à -vis, for instance, region-specific characteristics that are more tied to the social fabric of specific societies.Publication Changing Gender Gaps in the Timing of Partnership Formation in Sub-Saharan Africa(2020-02-19) Batyra, Ewa; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Furstenberg, Frank F.Due to scarcity of research about men, gender differences in transition to adulthood in Sub-Saharan Africa remain poorly documented. We adopt a novel perspective on this topic by examining gender gaps in the ages of first union and sex in 27 countries, focusing on measures of central tendency and dispersion. Gender differences in the age of first union decreased, driven by postponement among women with relatively late pattern of union formation. Due to concurrent persistence of very early unions among a sizable portion of women’s populations, within-country heterogeneity in the ages of first union increased substantially among women. Hence, although forces responsible for earlier union formation among women than among men are weakening, these changes affect population strata unequally. Gender differences in the age of first sex decreased to a lesser extent, but in some countries, they disappeared or reversed, suggesting a shift in the relationship between gender and timing of sexual initiation. Changes in partnership formation are more heterogeneous across countries among men than among women, indicating that timing of transition to adulthood among men is more context specific. We show importance of including men in research on partnership formation and exploring heterogeneity in this process both within and between populations of women and men.