Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Yu, Jiao
Language:English
Published: Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1624982449564145
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spelling ndltd-OhioLink-oai-etd.ohiolink.edu-case16249824495641452021-09-02T05:10:44Z Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China Yu, Jiao Sociology Fertility history Later life health Sequence analysis Cohort study Fertility experiences have been found to be associated with long-term health advantages and disadvantages over the life course. To date, much of the literature on women’s reproductive health focus on the long-term effects of discrete fertility events. How fertility history as a whole influences women’s health in older age is still understood to a limited extent. This line of inquiry is primarily conducted in Western countries. Nearly no study focuses on women’s fertility patterns in China, where reproductive behaviors are deeply impacted by the dynamic interactions of the patriarchal norm and the family planning policy.By employing sequence analysis and a comparative cohort design, This study advances the existing research of fertility history and later life health by using a holistic classification of fertility characteristics of Chinese women aged 15-49. Guided by a life course cumulative risks thesis, my dissertation undertakes the first systematic attempt to examine the influences of fertility trajectory patterns on later life mental health and functional health using a nationally representative dataset: the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). The findings reveal that women’s improved socioeconomic status is associated with the fertility groups featured with low parity and late childbearing, regardless of the cohort membership. The birth planning policy only matters for the One-child policy cohort. Both the compositional shifts of cohorts’ social-demographics and the behavioral changes induced by the birth planning policy contribute to the shifting fertility patterns across cohorts. For the two health outcomes, a high parity, longer reproductive years profile is positively associated with elevated depressive symptoms among the One-child policy cohort. The relationship between functional health and fertility history has been greatly attenuated once pre-fertility characteristics that select women into various fertility patterns have been considered. I employ a machine learning feature selection approach to disentangle the most important fertility trajectory features for later life health. I find that fertility sequence complexity, fertility trajectory dissimilarity, and certain birth timing are associated with later life mental health. Overall, the study highlights the role of the state and historical contexts in shaping fertility patterns and the relationships between fertility history and later life health. 2021-09-01 English text Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1624982449564145 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1624982449564145 restricted--full text unavailable until 2023-08-13 This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
topic Sociology
Fertility history
Later life health
Sequence analysis
Cohort study
spellingShingle Sociology
Fertility history
Later life health
Sequence analysis
Cohort study
Yu, Jiao
Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China
author Yu, Jiao
author_facet Yu, Jiao
author_sort Yu, Jiao
title Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China
title_short Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China
title_full Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China
title_fullStr Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China
title_full_unstemmed Fertility History and Later Life Health: A Sequence Analysis of Cohorts before and during the One-Child Policy Era in China
title_sort fertility history and later life health: a sequence analysis of cohorts before and during the one-child policy era in china
publisher Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies / OhioLINK
publishDate 2021
url http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1624982449564145
work_keys_str_mv AT yujiao fertilityhistoryandlaterlifehealthasequenceanalysisofcohortsbeforeandduringtheonechildpolicyerainchina
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