Surnames provide a useful method to study the structure of human populations for which biological data are not available. The isonymic method has had multiple applications, but difficulties emerge when dealing with groups where extramarital reproduction is common and the sample size is small, and even more so when only paternal surnames are taken into account. Therefore, it could be of interest to retain female surnames, including those of unmarried mothers. This study was carried out using all birth records from an Argentinian population in the colonial period, which was characterized by the presence of different ethno-social groups (Spanish, Indian and ‘Mestizo’ or mixed Spanish–Indian) and various reproductive patterns regarding legitimacy. Coefficient of relationship by isonymy (Ri) kinship matrices between geographical populations were obtained, and the results derived from sets of surnames (paternal, maternal of legitimate and illegitimate children, and all surnames in the registers) compared. The results show similar surname distribution regardless of the set of surnames and group considered. Kinship Ri matrices using paternal surnames, maternal surnames of legitimate children, maternal surnames of illegitimate children, and the set of whole surnames showed the same relationships among populations, indicating a similar pattern for Spanish, Indian and Mixed ethno-social groups. Mantel test correlation between all pairs of matrices was significant in all different ethno-social groups. The results suggest that in populations with high illegitimacy, such as that studied here, it is possible to include maternal surnames, even corresponding to single mothers, in order to consider total reproduction and therefore maximize sample size.

Universal health coverage is central to the development agenda to achieve maternal and neonatal health goals. Although there is evidence of a growing preference for institutional births in India, it is important to understand the pattern of switching location of childbirth and the factors associated with it. This study used data from the fourth round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-4) conducted in India in 2015–16. The study sample comprised 59,629 women who had had at least two births in the five years preceding the survey. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to the data. About 16.4% of the women switched their location of childbirth between successive births; 9.1% switched to a health facility contributing to a net increment of 1.9% in institutional delivery, varying greatly across states and regions. There was at least a 4 percentage point net increment in institutional births in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana, but the shift was more in favour of home births in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. Women with high parity and a large birth interval had higher odds of switching their place of childbirth, and this was in favour of a health facility, while women with higher education, from lower social groups, living in urban areas, who had not received four antenatal care visits, and who belonged to a higher wealth quintile had higher odds of switching their place of childbirth to a health facility, despite having lower odds of switching their childbirth location. The study provides evidence of women in India switching their location of childbirth for successive births, and this was more prevalent in areas where the rate of institutional delivery was low. Only a few states showed a higher net increment in favour of a health facility. This suggests that there is a need for action in specific states and regions of India to achieve universal health coverage.

The analysis of fertility in colonizing populations is of great interest, since its individuals experience a major environmental change, and fertility rates can reflect the level of adaptation of the population to its new conditions. Using Northrop’s genealogical compilations, this paper examines the fertility pattern of California’s early Spanish-Mexican colonists between 1742 and 1876, their fitness levels and their trend across time throughout the colonizing period. A total of 197 women from 599 compiled families who had completed their reproductive period and had at least one child were analysed. The correlations among variables were also analysed in order to infer the relationship between longevity and fertility, and the influence of fertility determinants. The results show a natural fertility pattern, with a very young age at marriage and birth of first child (17.2 and 19.1 years respectively), and also a young age at last childbirth (38.8 years). The population’s fitness showed greater values than for contemporary European populations, with 8 of 9.2 children surviving to adulthood, in comparison with 55% of newborns in Finland for the same period, suggesting a good adaptation of the population to their new environmental conditions. No relationship between fertility and lifespan was observed, as has been reported by other authors and in opposition to classical theories. A temporal trend in the number of children, consisting of three different phases, was observed, in accordance with the stability of living conditions in the region.

Amidst persistently high unintended pregnancy rates and lags in contraceptive use, novel methodological approaches may prove useful in investigating sexual and reproductive health outcomes in the Philippines. Systematic Anomalous Case Analysis (SACA) – a mixed-methods technique – was employed to examine predictors of women’s lifetime contraceptive use. First, multivariable, longitudinal Poisson regression models predicted fertility and sexual debut using the 1998–2009 Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Surveys (CLHNS), then regression outliers and normative cases were used to identify 48 participants for in-depth interviews (2013–2014) for further examination. Qualitative findings from 24 women highlighted ‘control over life circumstances’ was critical, prompting the addition of two items to the original quantitative models predicting any contraceptive use (n=532). Each of the items, ‘what happens to [them] is their own doing’ and ‘[I] do not [have] enough control over direction life is taking [me]’, significantly and independently predicted any contraceptive use (aOR: 2.37 (CI: 1.24–4.55) and aOR: 0.46 (CI: 0.28–0.77), respectively). The findings demonstrate the utility of SACA to improve the understanding and measurement of sexual and reproductive health outcomes and underscore the importance of integrating psychosocial constructs into existing models of fertility and reproductive behaviour in the Philippines to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes.

Although young people in South Africa are growing up in an era where their socioeconomic circumstances are seemingly better than those of their parents’ generation, they face greater risks in their trajectory to adulthood. This is mainly because the environment in which they are making sexual decisions is also rapidly evolving. Currently, South Africa has the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the world among young people aged 15–24. This study examined the effect of sexual behaviours initiated in adolescence on enrolment in post-secondary education. The analysis was conducted using data from the longitudinal Cape Area Panel Study (CAPS, Waves 1–5) conducted in 2002–2009, which focused on young people’s sexual behaviours in Cape Town, South Africa. The sample was restricted to 3213 individuals who reported sexual debut during adolescence. Using logistic regression models fitted separately for males and females, the results revealed that several factors acted as either hindrances or protective factors to enrolment in post-secondary education. Early sexual debut (by age 17) was negatively associated with participation in tertiary education. Other variables that had a negative effect included not using contraception at first sex, parenthood, engaging in risky behaviours such as illegal substance use, cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol and neglect of school homework (doing less than an hour a day). Higher levels of parental education (except for paternal education in the female model), urban residence and higher aspirations and analogous behaviours (studying) acted as protective factors and were positively associated with post-secondary education initiation. The paper also points to the relationship between early sexual debut and persistent socioeconomic inequality and provides empirical evidence for re-thinking policy development and implementation around schooling and sex education.

The paper uses multiple regression analysis to examine the variation in fertility among Indian Tamil concentrations in the Grama Sevaka divisions of Sri Lanka. Significant contributions are made by the proportion of females employed in agriculture, and the proportion of females aged 5–14 attending school, which together account for 85% of the variability. These variables serve as an index to the underlying attitudes to fertility and reproductive behaviour.

The authors compared 130 married abortion applicants with 100 married pregnant women who were attending the antenatal clinic. The abortion applicants were more likely to have had unhappy childhoods, broken homes, sexual pathology and more children. Their neuroticism scores on the Maudsley Personality Inventory were significantly higher. They tended to use either no contraception or unreliable methods. They were older and tended to report more socioeconomic problems. The characteristics of abortion applicants in this study seem to be similar to those reported from other countries.

In rural Tanzania, evidence is provided that socioeconomic development is more important in lowering mortality than the provision of health facilities and services. The impact of socioeconomic development on mortality is shown in the study.

An isonymic analysis has been carried out using a sample of 1529 reconstituted families residing during 1870–1964 in Aranjuez, an urban area situated south of Madrid, Spain. The random, non-random and total-components inbreeding coefficients from isonymy were obtained and the various combinations of surnames compared in order to infer the patri- or matrilocal pattern of residence. Throughout the period studied the random component of inbreeding (Fr) has not changed, in contrast to the non-random component (Fn), thus suggesting the latter could be responsible for the reduction of total inbreeding. Using several methodological approaches (biplot analysis, α, ν and percentage of immigrants) the predominance of the immigration of grooms was interpreted in terms of Aranjuez as a matrilocal pattern of residence. From this study it can also be concluded that surnames provided by reconstituted families are good estimators of inbreeding and migration.

The concept of ‘need’ is currently popular in education. It is, as Dearden (1972) has pointed out, an attractive concept for educationalists, because it appears to offer an escape from arguments about values and about power. Those who uncritically accept the doctrine of needs can assume that there are educational experts who can unproblematically decide on needs, which can then be unproblematically catered for. Thus, when ethnic minority children began to arrive in British schools in significant numbers in the early 1960s, it was assumed that the schools—without experience or understanding of other cultures—could make an assessment of the needs of these children.

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.

Instead of divorce rates per 1000 married population, the actual divorce percentages expressed as the proportion of marriages contracted in successive years since 1911 are calculated from a random sample of 3392 first marriages in Amsterdam. The results show the highest divorce percentages for younger men, decreasing from 40% if they were married at 19 years of age to 12% if they were married at 30 years of age. Women attained these values if married at 17 and 28 years of age, respectively. The divorce percentage has increased from 10% for marriages contracted in 1911 to 20% for those contracted in the period 1941–45. The linear increase suggests that about 25% of marriages contracted in the period 1966–70 will end in divorce. This trend seems to depend on changes in the median age of marriage as well as on different divorce tendencies for men marrying at different ages.

It is hoped that the method of calculating divorce trends according to the year of marriage, and to specific age-groups, as used in this study, might yield more information about the range of the divorce problem than the more traditional methods of populations statistics.

Maternity histories from residents of a Pacific Island society, Tokelau, and migrants to New Zealand, are analysed using life table techniques. Inter-cohort differentials in patterns of family formation were found in the total Tokelau-origin population. The process of accelerated timing and spacing of pregnancies was more pronounced among migrants who tended to marry later, be pregnant at marriage, have shorter inter-pregnancy intervals at lower parities and to show evidence of family limitation occurring at higher parities. These results point to the significance of changing patterns of social control on strategies of family building.

In the Lyon region of France, 356 couples of childbearing age were interviewed regarding their fertility intentions. Couples intending to have, and not to have, further children were compared. The former are less often skilled workers or qualified office staff, the woman is less likely to work, and the couple had their first child at a relatively late age. These differences are still present after adjustment for the couple's ages and number of children.

This report evaluates the decrease in maternal mortality and its relation to family planning methods in Sweden during the years 1911–80. In the 1930s fertility was low but illegal abortions were at a high level and the associated maternal death rate was 18·5 per 1000 women. With the legalization of abortion and the introduction of modern contraceptive methods, the crude reproductive mortality rate in 1965–70 was 1·7 per 100,000 women and this was reduced still further, especially for younger women, by the late 1970s. Standardized reproductive mortality was then 80% higher than the crude rate, indicating the importance of modern family planning methods. Mortality associated with oral contraceptive or IUD use in Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s was lower than in England and the US. Mortality associated with sterilization was 6·2 per 100,000 procedures.