Religion and fertility: understanding adolescent pregnancy and religion in São Paulo (original) (raw)
Related papers
Religious Influences on Teenage Childbearing Among Brazilian Female Adolescents: A Research Note
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2010
in Latin America over the past several decades. This study uses data from the National Demographic and Health Survey in Brazil to explore the influence of religious affiliation and attendance on the reproductive behavior of unmarried female adolescents (ages 15-19). Results demonstrate that religiously affiliated female adolescents are less likely to have had a child during their teen years when compared with their unaffiliated peers. These protective effects are quite robust for adolescents who claim a Pentecostal affiliation, which is consistent with the doctrine of sanctification, including norms of sexual restraint. Results also demonstrate that teens who attend worship services frequently are significantly less likely to have had a child. These findings augment prior research on religion and fertility while calling attention to the protective effects associated with emergent niches in Brazil's increasingly diversified religious economy. Correspondence should be addressed to Curtis P. Ogland,
Among the cultural factors associated with fertility and fertility planning, religion has received little attention in Brazil. Yet previous work has shown that fertility rates vary substantially across religious affiliations. There is also evidence that teenage fertility is related to religious affiliation in Brazil. Very little is known about the relationship between contraceptive use and religion in Brazil and even less is known about religion and contraceptive use among Brazilian adolescents. The objective of this paper is to investigate the association between religious affiliation and attendance and contraceptive use among female adolescents in Brazil, comparing never married adolescents to those who are in union. In addition to contraceptive use in general, pill and condom use will also be investigated. Data come from the 2006 PNDS (Pesquisa Nacional de Demografia e Saúde. Results suggest that the association between religion and contraceptive use (including pill and condom us...
Psychological Reports, 1992
Path analysis was used to study the determinants of fertility in 221 urban-dwelling Brazilian women. Traditional sex-role attitudes and religious orthodoxy directly and positively affected family size. Religious orthodoxy also indirectly influenced fertility via its positive influence on traditional sex-role attitudes. Socioeconomic group affected fertility only by way of association with attitudes and beliefs. Contrary to expectation, participation in the labor force had no effect on the number of children women bore. Analysis within socioeconomic groups showed that dererminants of fertility vary for women in different stages of cultural development. Brazil, Latin America's largest nation in population and land area, with the world's eighth largest gross national product (Kurian, 1989), has seen vast demographic and social changes during the last twenty years. Large-scale migration from the interior of the northeastern region to the cities of the southeast changed the character of the country from predominantly rural to 75% urban. Modifications in family life accompanied this demographic upheaval. Contact with middle-class urbanites, television, and films began to change women's ideas about their roles. Their husbands' low wages coupled with the desire for manufactured goods drove women into the labor force. Challenges arose to Brazil's traditional "macho" culture wherein men dominate and retain authority in domestic matters. Church interference in family affairs, a constant influence in small parishes of the interior, waned with the anonymity of big city life. Chddren, an economic asset on the farm, became a liability in the urban shantytown. The number of babies born fell sharply. I n 1989 Brazil's total fertility rate was 3.38 (UNICEF, 1990), compared with 5.76 in 1970 (IBGE, 1984). Still, Brazil's population growth rate is more than twice that of the USA. In itself, this would not be cause for alarm; however, fertility in Latin America varies inversely with family income. This fact, together with increases in childhood malnutrition, delinquency, and unemployment among the poor, has led to increased interest in family planning programs and a need to understand the determinants of fertility among Brazil's urban women.
A new look at teenage pregnancy in Brazil
2011
This paper brings a synthesis of some of the main results provided by GRAVAD survey (Teenage pregnancy: multicentric study about youth, sexuality and reproduction in Brazil). GRAVAD is a study about sexual and reproductive behavior among Brazilian youth that interviewed 4,634 individuals in a population survey with a random sample. Women and men between 18 and 24 years old were interviewed in three capitals-Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. "Teen pregnancy" is not the consequence of promiscuous sexual activities, as popular beliefs currently state. It is often ignored that amidst the poorer social segments parenthood is seen as a sign of social status, given the lack of professional perspectives. Among the middle class, other sociocultural horizons give parenthood the status of an experience to be lived in later moments of live, when one's professional and financial lives have been consolidated.
Increasing adolescent and youth fertility in Brazil: a new trend or a one-time event
2005
The objective of this paper is to analyze the increase in fertility rates among adolescents and young women in Brazil over the last decade by using census data, household survey data, and administrative records in order to determine the scenario where this increase took place and to hypothesize about the trends for the next decade. The results show an increase in the fertility of adolescents, or youth, defined as the population aged 15-19, while age-specific fertility rates for all other groups have fallen. The 2000 census data show that the greatest increases occurred among the leasteducated women, the poorest, and those living in urban areas. Although the trends of increase seem to have since reversed, the results indicate that the public health system should nevertheless be attentive to adolescent fertility, since the increase was much higher among the poorest, and their fertility levels remain high.
Teenage Pregnancy: A Latin-American Concern
Teenage pregnancy, in the context of social healthcare and gender equity, exemplifies the multiple vulnerabilities and deficiencies in children and teenagers' rights. Accordingly, this phenomenon may be qualified as one of the most complex and dramatic problems in Latin-America's present healthcare. In 2013, the teenage fertility rates in Latin-America was 73.2 per thousand, which compared with a 48.9 at a worldwide level, and the 52.7 in developing countries reflects a series of ethical, educational, socioeconomic and territorial inequities within these territories. Unfortunately, this situation is related to an early sexual initiation, teenagers' behavior, a lack of information and comprehensive sexual education, alcohol and drug use at early ages and to the lack of preventive measures for single and repetitive teenage pregnancies and associated risk behaviors by most of the Latin American healthcare system.
Religion and Sexual Initiation in Brazil
HORIZONTE, 2011
Increasing adolescent fertility and declining age at first sexual intercourse have been accompanied by a transformation in Brazil's religious landscape, signaled by the significant growth of Protestantism, and Pentecostalism in particular. Using data from the 2006 Brazil Demographic Health Survey (PNDS-DHS), we examine the associations between religion, as measured by religious affiliation and religious attendance, and unmarried adolescent sexual initiation in Brazil. Findings reveal that even after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and community variables, unmarried adolescent women's sexual initiation differs across religious affiliation and attendance patterns in Brazil: those who belong to traditional Protestant or Pentecostal churches, as well as those that attend church frequently, are at lower risk of engaging in sexual activity. Together with available ethnographic evidence, the results suggest that Pentecostalism and church attendance may both directly and indirectly shape unmarried adolescent women's sexual decision-making in Brazil.
Condom Use, Contraceptive Methods, and Religiosity among Youths of Low Socioeconomic Level
The Spanish journal of psychology, 2008
The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the use of condoms and other contraceptive methods and religiosity/spirituality among youths of a low socioeconomic level in Porto Alegre. 1013 youths, between 12–24 years of age participated, responding to a personal questionnaire containing 109 items. Results show that 53.5% of these youths had already had their first sexual encounter, 55% of which had this experience before the age of 15. The majority (42.8%) claimed to be Catholic, and 26.7% said they believe in God, but were not religious. There appeared no significant difference in the use of condoms in relation to the level of religiosity, however, men used this method more than women to avoid AIDS and as a contraceptive. Women used other contraceptive methods more frequently, and there were no cases of exclusive use of methods permitted by the major religions (natural methods). This study revealed a high level of condom use (more than 80%) among both relig...