The effects of marital dissolution and remarriage in urban Latin America

Citation: Dowing, D. C., Yaukey, D. (1979) The effects of marital dissolution and remarriage in urban Latin America. Population Studies (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): The effects of marital dissolution and remarriage in urban Latin America
Tagged: uw-madison (RSS), wisconsin (RSS), sociology (RSS), demography (RSS), prelim (RSS), qual (RSS), WisconsinDemographyPrelimAugust2009 (RSS), marriage (RSS)

Summary

Marital and fertility histories from 8064 women in seven Latin American cities (Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, San Jose, Mexico City, Panama City and Caracas) in 1964-65 have been analyzed to show the effect of marital dissolution and re-marriage on fertility. For women who experience marital dissolution and re-marriage, two major forces are seen to be acting on fertility: the anti-natalist effect of reproductive time lost (time spent out of marriage), and the pro-natalist effect of re-marriage (sanctioning the re-initiation of childbearing). Evidence is presented for the independent influence of these two factors. The pro-natalist effect of re-marriage is important, however, in inverse relation to socio-economic status: the fertility of women married more than once is higher than that of women married once only (just as an example, in Barbados women with only one union have had 2.6 live births, with two 3.2, with three 3.8 and with four 4.7 live births), where either (1) the women are of low socio-economic status or (2) live in a city in which women as a whole are at a lower socio-economic level. The current pro-natalist effect on re-marriage is reduced by controlling for women's education, and may in some cases be artificial.