米国の出生率下げ止まらず
Execte Newsより。
「お金の心配があると子供を作らないので、不況が続く限り出生率も下がる。」とのこと。
米国の出生率下げ止まらず
最近の研究によると、昨年の米国における新生児の出生数は2.6%下がった。またしても出生率がマイナスである。
全国保健統計センターの最新の報告書によると、人口変化を考慮した上での出生率は、1000人あたり出生数が2007年の14.3人、2008年の13.9人に続いて、昨年は13.5人にまで下がった。
ジョンズホプキンズ大学の社会学教授アンドルー・チャーリンは、経済が果たす重要な役割を考えれば、この趨勢は驚くことではないという。「出生率が下がったのは大不況のためです。将来の収入に不安がある場合、人は子作りを先延ばしにするものです。」
チャーリン教授は「今回の下がり方は過去2回の不況時に較べて急激ですが、それはそれだけ今回の不況が深刻なものだということです」ともいう。
米国の出生率は2007年後半に経済が悪化し始めて以来、一貫してさがり続けている。チャーリン教授によれば、経済が上向けば出生も上向くはずだが、国民が安心感を取り戻すにはまだ時間がかかるだろうとのことだ。
Andrew Cherlin の主な著書は以下。
- Andrew J. Cherlin, The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today, Vintage, 2010
- The Marriage-Go-Round illuminates the shifting nature of America's most cherished social institution and explains its striking differences from marriage in other Western countries. Andrew J. Cherlin's three decades of study have shown him that marriage in America is a social and political battlefield in a way that it isn’t in other developed countries. Americans marry and divorce more often and have more live-in partners than Europeans, and gay Americans have more interest in legalizing same-sex marriage. The difference comes from Americans’ embrace of two contradictory cultural ideals: marriage, a formal commitment to share one's life with another; and individualism, which emphasizes personal choice and self-development. Religion and law in America reinforce both of these behavioral poles, fueling turmoil in our family life and heated debate in our public life. Cherlin’s incisive diagnosis is an important contribution to the debate and points the way to slowing down the partnership merry-go-round.
- Andrew J. Cherlin, Public and Private Families: An Introduction, 6th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2009
- Nationally recognized for its sound scholarship and balanced approach and written by one of the leading authorities in the field, this text examines the family through two lenses: the familiar private family in which we live most of our personal lives, and the public family in which we, as adults, deal with broader societal issues such as the care of the elderly, the increase in divorce, and childbearing outside of marriage. The book looks at intimate personal concerns, such as whether to marry, as well as societal concerns, such as governmental policies that affect families. Distinctive chapters - Chapter 9, "Children and Parents;" Chapter 10, "Older Persons and Their Families;" and Chapter 14, "The Family, the State and Social Policy" - examine issues of great current interest, such as income assistance to poor families, the effects of out-of-home childcare, and the costs of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
- Andrew J. Cherlin, Public and Private Families: A Reader, 6th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2009
- This reader examines the family through two lenses--the familiar private family, in which we live our personal lives, and the public family, in which we deal with broader societal issues, such as raising the next generation, and the care of the elderly. Consequently, these readings look both at intimate, personal concerns, such as whether to marry, as well as societal concerns, such as governmental policies that affect families. The reader corresponds exactly to and is published concurrent with Cherlin's textbook Public and Private Families: An Introduction; both the textbook and the reader have 14 chapters of the same names.
- Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., Andrew J. Cherlin, The New American Grandparent: A Place in the Family, A Life Apart, Harvard University Press, 1992
- The increase in the life expectancy of the average American has finally resulted in a growth of studies about grandparents. These two family sociologists conducted a telephone survey of over 500 grandparents nationwide in order to gain a better understanding of the nature of grandparenthood in today's society. One particular focus of the survey was the way in which the increased divorce rate in the middle generation has altered the grandparent role, making it more substantial. The survey results are not surprising, but the representativeness of the sample will probably make it a standard in the field.
- Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, divorce, remarriage, revised and enlarged ed., Harvard University Press, 1992
- "Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage" explores Americans' ambivalence toward marriage: we continue to value it highly, but we also marry later, dissolve the marriages we make more readily, and are more reluctant to remarry than ever before. In a revision and enlargement, Andrew Cherlin examines the course of family life in America, including cohabitation, marriage, divorce and remarriage, from the end of World War II through the early 1990s. He also assesses the causes and consequences of these trends, ranging from the anomaly of the 1950s, when marriage rose, divorce declined, and couples had large families, to the rapid increase in cohabitation and single life. For this edition, Cherlin has updated all of the graphs and tables, and presented new findings on cohabitation and its relationship to marriage. He has also completely rewritten the chapter on black-white differences. It is now an essay on one of the most troubling public policy issues: the relations among race, poverty, and marriage. And in a new chapter, he explores the meaning of marriage in our society.
- Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., Andrew J. Cherlin, Divided Families: What Happens to Children When Parents Part, Harvard University Press, 1991
- This text argues that despite the upset children experience after parental separation, most adapt successfully provided the mother is secure both financially and psychologically, and conflict between parents is low. The usual casualty of divorce is a declining relationship between father and child.
- Andrew J. Cherlin (ed.), Changing American Family and Public Policy, Urban Institute Press, 1988
- Married women and mothers working outside the home, divorce, and single-parent households have become part of American society for a variety of economic and cultural reasons, and government policy is unlikely to alter these features. Government should therefore be directed toward easing immediate problems by, for example, providing child care and easing strain on working mothers. Practical and limited assistance of this type, according to the editor, would help legitimize such needs and would send a signal to business and community leaders that these needs deserve more attention.
