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Fertility on the US–Mexico border

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Charles W. Warren ,
Richard S. Monteith  and
J. Timothy Johnson
Charles W. Warren
Affiliation:
US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Health Promotion and Education, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Richard S. Monteith
Affiliation:
US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Health Promotion and Education, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
J. Timothy Johnson
Affiliation:
US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, Center for Health Promotion and Education, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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Summary

Using Bongaarts' model, the relative importance of the proximate determinants of fertility is explored in five populations on the US–Mexico border. For the groups closest to natural fertility (the two Mexican groups), lactation, use of contraception, and marriage all were moderately important in terms of their direct effect on fertility. For the group with lowest fertility (Anglo-American), contraceptive use was an important factor inhibiting fertility; marriage was important but not nearly as important as contraceptive use. For the two US Mexican-American groups, contraceptive use was an important intermediate variable, not as important as for Anglo-Americans, but more important than it was for the two populations in Mexico. The proportion married was a moderately important factor for the Mexican-American groups. For these five populations the principal differences in fertility rates result from substantial differences in the use of effective contraception. Bongaarts' model proved very useful as an analytical framework in this study.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1989 , pp. 409 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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