Community Context, Land Use, and First Birth

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of community context and land use on the monthly odds of first birth in a society in the midst of dramatic fertility transition. The theoretical framework guiding our work predicts that proximity to non-family services should delay first births by creating opportunities for competing non-family activities and spreading new ideas that change expectations about family life. On the other hand, living in agricultural settings that provide opportunities for higher returns to the child labor should speed first births. We use a longitudinal, multilevel, mixed-method data from the Nepalese Himalayas to test these predictions. The empirical results reveal that non-family services during childhood and during early adulthood both have important independent influences on the odds of first birth. Also, as predicted, a high density of agricultural land use affects the odds of first births in the opposite direction, speeding first births. This clear pattern of contrasting effects provides important new evidence of the contextual dynamics that produce watershed changes in post-marital birth timing.

Environmental quality and fertility: the effects of plant density, species richness, and plant diversity on fertility limitation

“…By controlling for the presence of markets, employers, health services, and public transportation I demonstrate that the characteristics of the natural environment themselves are related to fertility behaviors, independently of how the rest of the physical environment has changed. These findings are in line with previous research in this setting looking at the independent effects of non-family organizations and land use (Ghimire and Axinn 2010). In substantive terms these results imply that for residents, a “better” neighborhood is one rich in both social support services and natural resources.…”

“…Because we have 10 years of monthly contraceptive use data, women who were only 15 years old in 1996 would have been 25 at the end of the data collection period. Since mean age at marriage is around 20, with childbearing typically occurring shortly thereafter, this is plenty of time to observe the transition to using contraception (Ghimire and Axinn 2010). …”

“…cause a spurious relationship). Places with more markets or vehicle traffic will likely have lower quality natural environments and lower fertility (Axinn and Ghimire 2011; Axinn and Yabiku 2001; Ghimire and Axinn 2010). Health services are another important community characteristic since those with more access to contraceptive methods are more likely to use them (Brauner-Otto et al 2007; Entwisle et al 1996).…”

Impact of the spread of mass education on married women’s experience with domestic violence

“…Empirical evidence from rural Nepal is consistent with this idea (Axinn and Yabiku 2001; Ghimire and Axinn 2010): the spread of mass education has led to delays in marriage (Yabiku 2005), a transition away from arranged marriage toward individual choice of spouse (Ghimire et al 2006), and an increase in positive relations between spouses (Hoelter et al 2004; Allendorf and Ghimire 2013). Moreover, research has repeatedly demonstrated that exposure to formal education and Western European-style curricula are among the most powerful forces affecting family formation and relationships (Caldwell et al 1988; Hoelter et al 2004; Lin 1994).…”

Agent-Based Modeling in Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS): Lessons from a Comparative Analysis

“…Community agents in the Chitwan ABM represent a cluster of (usually ten to twenty) households that live in close proximity and share common community context-defined as similar access to markets, employment opportunities, schools, bus stops, and health centers. The inclusion of this additional level in the Chitwan ABM is due to the abundant research in Chitwan about how community context might affect demographic and land use decisions (e.g., Axinn et al 2007;Ghimire and Axinn 2010;Axinn and Ghimire 2011).…”