The Determinants of Brazil's Recent Rapid Decline in Fertility (1983) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 145-207
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From page 145... ...
There are, of course, advantages to be gained from both: the nationallevel analys is permits aggregate conclusions and hypotheses, however tentative; the local-level data examined in the following pages provides another , complementary per specti~re on those perceptional. These chapters examine the purpose and methodology of the NIlIRs levels and trends in the total fertility rate for the nine local contexts studied; and the effects of nuts tiality, marital fertility patterns, the proximate determinants, and socioeconomic factors, specif ically income, on fertility for the nine contexts.
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From page 146... ...
The capitalist form was subdivided into monopolistic and competitive; for the small autonomous producers, the distinction was between rural and urban. The second dimension, place in the process of development' was based on the assumption that development tends to concentrate economic activities and population in certain areas, and to disperse them in others.
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From page 147... ...
. These municipalities are distributed over six states: Sao Paula, Rio Grande do Sul, Pernambuco, Espirito Santa, Para, and Pisui.
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From page 148... ...
(Espirito Santo - ES) System of Autonomous Producer 5 Urban Santa Cruz do -- Parnaiba Sul (Rio Grande (Pisui - PI)
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From page 149... ...
Each was given a questionnaire consisting of three modules. The first, known as the household module, contained information on all the members of the household, identifying them through their relation to the head of the household, as well as their age, sex, marital status, level of schooling, occupation (type of activity, position, and periodicity)
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From page 150... ...
Given the characteristics of the study, it would be practically meaningless to aggregate the nine contexts to provide estimates of national~level demographic parameters. Thus the discussion that follows, while parallel to that of Part ~ in many ways, is quite different in focus, and serves as a complement to that analysis.
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From page 151... ...
dead and married while alive Situations 1, 3, and 4 could only occur if the woman was the informant; situation 5 could only occur if a man was the informant; and situation 2 could occur in either case. Second, the fact that the investigation also included single women avoided the problem of completeness involved 151
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From page 152... ...
This means that fertility rates could be calculated for almost all age groups and for a distant past, although it must be remembered that memory problems man introduce certain difficulties. The total fertility rates (Table 51)
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From page 153... ...
In 196S, the maximum variability was about 4 children per woman, rising to 5.4 in 1970 and 6.0 In 197S. The extreme cases were always Santa Cruz do Sul-Urban, with the lowest total fertility rate, and Parnaiba-Rural, with the highest.
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From page 154... ...
For 1970 to 1975, the decline was much steeper, except for Parnaiba-Rural and Santa Cruz-Urban. However, the total fertility rate for the latter area in 1975 should be taken with reservations, since fluctuations in the sampling process made the specific fertility rate for women between 15 and 19 very high in 1915.
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From page 155... ...
43 5.96 The central question posed by the data reported above is why cortex" with very different social and economic structures show such similar rates of decline, while more similar contexts show such different rates. The d~scussion that follows explores this question by examining the role of nuptiality and marital fertility in the fertility declines observed at the local level (Chapters 7 and 8)
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From page 156... ...
Since then, those who follow some kind of religion have continued to conduct religious marriages, either exclusively or as a complement to legal marriage. Two other types of union are present in Brazilian society: consensual union and permanent union.
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From page 157... ...
In Sertaozinho, the fall in the number of religious unions was not sufficient to account for the increase found For free unions, but was partly due to a reduction in the relative weight of legal unions; the same can be said of Conceicso do Araguaia. This relative increase in free unions as a result of a fall in either religious or legalized unions is also shown in Table 54, based on the findings of the 1960 and 1970 censuses and the 1978 PNAD (National Household Sample Survey)
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From page 159... ...
159 In ~ ~ ~ ~ (D O O to al to (D Cal ~ ~ ~ Cal fir al ~ ~ ~ 0 0 · ~ ~ e ~ \0 ~ ~ Am · 0 ~ 0 0 ~ ~ ret 0 ~ ~4 ~ - 4 (D ~ ~ ~ ~ Cal ret O · .
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From page 160... ...
It ~s evident that, with divorce impossible in Brazil at the time, a new civil marriage was impossible, so that mung second unions, permanent and consensual unions were more frequent. Thus legal unions among second unions refer to cases where Ache
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From page 162... ...
It is interesting to note that the preference for legal unions remained at the same level: about 71 percent of first unicorns were legal, irrespective of when they were initiated. Religious unions, however, gradually lost their relative position' falling from 18.4 percent for older unions to 7 0 3 percent for those initiated after 1970; there was also a concomitant rise in permanent and consensual unions, which together accounted for 2lo3 percent of more recent unions.
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From page 163... ...
163 EN Z O O ¢: C O {R 1 ~4 o Q4= :>, C ED ~ ' lo 41 1 O 3 lo _ ' to 1 ~ Cal o e 3 F
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From page 165... ...
To this end, Table S8 shows the distribution of ever-married women according to the type of union, for the same three marriage cohorts. It may be noted immediately that in all contexts, there was a progressive increase in permanent and consensual unions; only Santa Cruz-Urban showed any stabilization in the proportions of permanent unions, while only in Cachoeiro did consensual unions show an increase in proportions, followed by a decrease.
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From page 167... ...
As for legal unions, Cachoeiro practically maintained stable pattern (around 90 percent) ; Santa Cruz-Orban and -Rural, which accounted for the highest level of legal unions, saw an increase of this type of union from the first to the second cohort, mainly because of a drop in the relative importance of religious unions.
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From page 168... ...
but without a dowry or any wedding feasts or ceremonies, as a pseudo-punishment. Consensual unions are also a solution to separations f allowing legal or even religious unions.
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From page 169... ...
Of the 13 cases where religious unions followed consensual unions, 50 percent were with the same person, with Ache bearing of children an associated factor. In Parnaiba-Rural, it is also worth noting that 21 of the 55
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From page 171... ...
However small the number of consensual unions in Santa Cruz-Urban and Cachoeiro, where the numerical results were subject to considerable sample fluctuation, it should be noted that these contexts showed a very similar absence of consensual unions as a stage prior to a legal union. This may simply indicate that not enough time had passed for these unions to be converted into legal marriages since, as seen Wove, religious unions were extremely rare in these two urban contexts.
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From page 172... ...
Examining the 17 cases of consensual unions preceding a legal union for the three cohorts, it can be seen that in 8 cases, legalization occurred with the same person and following the birth of a child; in 2 cases, legalization was not associated with the birth of a childe Type of Union and Fertil' ty The mean number of children born in consensual unions, while lower in most instances than the means for religious a
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From page 173... ...
As can be seen, there is a clear decline in the mean number of children from only religious to permanent unions for the first two marriage cohorts. TABLE 61 Mean Nether of Children Ever Born Alive by Ever-Married Women, by Type of Marital Union, Nine Contexts, lets: Brazil Context - of union Civil and Religious Religious and Only Civil Only Consensual Cachoeiro de Itapemirim 2~2 3el 3~2 Santa Cruz do Sul-Urban 3.5 2.5 305 Sao Jose don Campos 4.2 304 1.2 Sertao Zinho 5.8 4.3 2.6 Santa Cruz do Sul-Rural 5.8 3.9 2.3 Recife 4.4 3.5 2.1 Parnaiba-Urban 5.6 5.3 3.1 Conce$ceo do Araguata Rural 4.1 3.9 2.3 Parnsiba-Rural 6.
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From page 174... ...
AGE AT MA=IAGE It is valuable for the study of nuptiality and fertility to estimate some nuptiality parameters, such as initial, mean, and final age at marriage. The information used for this purpose concerns the proportion of nonsingle women and the average par ity per age bracket for 1965, 1970, and 1975.
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From page 175... ...
17S Cat ID O up ~ up ~ ~ or ~ ~ 0 do r— · e · · · e · · e .01 ~ ~ ~ ~ O ~ ~ Cal ~ O _ ~ HI ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ d US ·.
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From page 176... ...
, Nine Contexts : Brazil . Context Mean Age at Marriage Sao Jose dos Campos Santa Crllz do Sul-Urban Santa Cruz do Sul-Rural Parnaiba-t~rban Parnaiba-Rural Sertaozinho Conceicso do Araguaia Cachoeiro de Itapemirim Recife 23.74 2S.22 23.37 23.39 23.47 23.42 19.64 23.9S 23.26
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From page 177... ...
What is far less clear from these data is the timing of the changes, which makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about how they affect fertility levels. In any case, as indicated in the following chapters, the primary factor involved in Brazil's accelerated fertility decline is declining marital fertility, traceable to changing patterns of contraceptive use.
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From page 178... ...
The largest decline was registered for Sertaozinho {as noted above in the comparison of total fertility rates)
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From page 179... ...
Such distances occur in a typical manner and, according to Coale, can be measured through the parameter ~m,. known as the degree of fertility control, or how far fertility practice has moved away from natural fertility as a result of the use of contraceptives and abortion.
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From page 180... ...
This decrease was probably ache main factor leading to that region's increase in the total fertility rate from 2. S to 2.9 children between 1970 and 19750 The variations in fertility levels between 197Q and 1975 can be clarified by comparing them with the nuptiality parameters and degrees of control for the same period.
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From page 181... ...
determinants of natural marital fertility duration of postpartum infecundity f ecundity spontaneous intrauterine mortality prevalence of permanent sterility Ilowever, not all these f actors have the same impact ire determining discrepancies between natural fertility and the total fertility rates observed In a given context. In fact, the proportion of married women, the use and efficiency of contraceptives, the prevalence of induced abortion, and the duration of postpartum infecundity account in general for over 95 percent of those discrepancies; the effects of the remaining three factors are difficult to measure in such studies as fertility surveys.
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From page 183... ...
Parnaiba-orban and -Rural -- an area which, as noted in the Appendix, has been occupied for a long time and now has a practically stagnant economy -- was shown to have the lowest fertility rates consistently, and it ~s this area which reqistered the lowest proportion of contraceptive use. are far from negl~gible, however: ~.~_ _ ~ ~ · ~ _ ~ _ .
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From page 184... ...
For the purposes of all the -following cat adulations, therefore, the proport ions of contraceptive use for Sao Jose ~ . .d Ser taozi~o adopted were, respectively, 6304 percent and 5806 percents TABLE 68 Currently Married Women Aged 15-49 Currently Using Contraception, Nine Contexts: Brazil Average of Currently Age-Specific Number of Context Using (percent)
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From page 185... ...
185 The data used as a basis for calculating average age-specific use rates showed that control was differential according to age but existed for all ages. Evidently, when observing this fact by age bracket, caution should be the rule given the extremely small number of women in each bracket.
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From page 186... ...
There were four main methods: rhythm, coitus interruptus, the pill, and female sterilization. In Santa Cruz-Urban Cachoeiro, and Sao Jose dos Campos, 85.
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From page 188... ...
For greater Sao Paulo, 21 percent of deliveries were caesareans for the penultimate child and 31 percent for the latest, while 17 percent of these mothers had given birth by caesarean in both cases. It is well known that any woman who has already had two or three caesareans is a sure candidate for sterilization.
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From page 189... ...
In other words, these results conf irm the f indings Obtained when Imp was calculated by Coale's method. The relation between the values for Cc and total fertility is also very clear : that is , the lower the value for C<, the lower the total fertility rate.
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From page 191... ...
The author does, however, emphasize that comparison in this case should be approached with caution since the information and/or methodologies involved are mostly heterogeneous. As noted in Chapter 5, the phenomenon of early weaning exists in today's Brazil, as it also does in a number of other Latin American countries (Lesthaeghe et al.
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From page 192... ...
1979 41.9 low~incame Sao Mateus (SP) 1980 13.0 working~class district Greater Sao Paulo (SP)
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From page 193... ...
Although the data presented by Puffer and Serrano refer to children who had already d fed at the time of the study and thus to some extent underestimated the breastfeeding times, they nevertheless indicate the regional differences involved. In 1975, working with 593 families in the Vale do Ribeira (coastal region of Sao Paulo state)
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From page 194... ...
To calculate Ca, the total fertility rates were taken from Table 51 and values for But from Table 62. values For Ca (Table 74)
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From page 195... ...
, Nine Contexts : Brazil Context TAR Ca Cachoeiro do Itapemirim 0.719 0.963 Santa Cruz-Urban GO 068 0.985 Sao Jose dos Campos 0.462 0.931 Sertaozinho 0 ~ 454 0.942 Santa Cru2-Rural 0.104 0. 987 Recife O O 478 0.947 Parnaiba-Urban 0.
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From page 196... ...
Among these, family income appears to have distinctive importance and is the focus of the discussion that follows. The analysis below is limited to the urban contexts s ince it addresses only monetary 7 Rime _^ ~ , ~ ..._, Families have been classified in four categories, depending on their per capita monthly income at the time of the survey (between 197S and 1977)
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From page 197... ...
These data reflect the variations in economic development Anteing the nine contexts descr ibed in the Appendix. With regard to Recife, as pointed out in the Appendix, the city's labor force has been characterized over recant decades by intense f luctuations between employment, unem ployment, odd jobs, and various kinds of urban underemployment.
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From page 198... ...
In Santa Cruz do Sul, it makes little difference whether a woman belongs to the first or second income bracket; the greatest decrease is for families with per capita monthly income of over one minimum wage. In Sao Jose dos Campos ~ virtually the same picture holds true, although the coloring is somewhat more vivid.
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From page 200... ...
This trend may well reflect, among other things, the effect of the population ° s degree of involvement in the f ormal labor market O Such involvement requires more skill, reflected, for example, in a higher level of schooling; it also exposes people to a mass of information related to health, hygiene, sex, and reproduction. In Sao Jose dos Campos, for example' a survey of the big companies, mainly the multinationals, showed that social workers within the companies present the idea of planning to employees whose productivity is falling off; this plan ning includes the reduction of fertility.
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From page 201... ...
Thus in 1950, Santa Cruz do Sul, a region with a large population of German origin, already had a fertility rate considered low by Brazilian standards; moreover, family size in Santa Cruz has been highly influenced by property size, which has fallen gradually over the last few decades because of the successive sharing of inheritances among surviving children.
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From page 202... ...
In all the contexts where there was a reduction in the general fertility rate, except for Santa Cruz-Urban, the decline in marital fertility was the most directly responsible factor . In Cachoeiro, Recife, Sao Jose, and Araguaia, the decline can be totally explained by the reduction in marital fertility, and would have been even larger if age structure and mar ital status had not contributed to the attenuation of this reduction.
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From page 203... ...
203 ._, so as: U]
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From page 204... ...
In Santa Cruz-Urban, these two factors were almost equal in contributing to the small decline for that region. Finally, the increase in the general fertility rate shown for Parnaiba-Rural was the result of an increase in the marital fertility rate, a more favorable distribution by marital status, and an age distribution which favored a drop in fertility.
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From page 205... ...
Both indicate the importance of consensual unions in Brazilian nuptiality patterns, as well as the cliff iculties involved in gather ing data on these unions; they also point to shif ts in age at mart iage e However, the national- and local-level analyses lead to the same conclusion: that the primary factor responsible for Brazil's accelerated fertility decline is declining marital fertility. This decline can in turn be traced, at both levels of analysis,
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From page 207... ...
Finally, both analyses point to a combination of factors -- changes in relative income, increased educational attainment, and increased female labor force participation -- as the main socioeconomic determinant of Brazil' s changing patterns of contraceptive use: these factors are associated with increased desires for consumer durables, the diffusion of information on family-size limitations and therefore an increase in conscious fertility control.
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