Austrian Academy of Sciences
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Are you Ready for a Child? A Methodological Triangulation on Fertility Intentions in Austria
No full textResearch on fertility has been mainly using quantitative methods, and it is only in the last fewdecades that qualitative research methods have become more common in demography.Combining qualitative and quantitative methods in a so-called triangulation is even moreuncommon. Applying a triangulation, the current paper aims to better understand the conceptof fertility intention with regard to family formation. During problem-centred interviews withchildless men and women, the issue of feeling ready was mentioned again and again. It turnedout that apart from economic circumstances, this individual aspect is important for thedecision to have a child. In this paper, we explain the rather complex concept of feeling readyusing interviews. Based on these qualitative results, additional questions were included in theAustrian “Generations and Gender Survey” (GGS) which allow to analyse the dimension ofbeing ready also quantitatively in a national representative dataset. Our results clearly supportthe theory of planned behaviour in the context of family formation, as social norms, attitudesand behaviour control are significantly associated with childbearing intentions. In thecontextual framework of the theory of planned behaviour, our quantitative results revealedthat the feeling of being ready has additional explanatory power for childbearing intentionsamong childless men and women in Austria
Kritische Kartographie, kritische Praxis und kritisches Kartieren. Mündige geographische Bildung mit digitalen Karten und Geodaten. GW-Unterricht|GW-Unterricht 164|
No full textDer Beitrag stellt dar, wie basierend auf fachwissenschaftlicher Kritischer Kartographie einerseits und Kartieren als kritische Praxis andererseits fachdidaktische Herangehensweisen an kritisches Kartieren in geographischer Bildung entwickelt wurden. Es werden entsprechende unterrichtliche Anwendungsbeispiele vorgestellt, die insbesondere Einblicke dahingehend erlauben, wie kritische und mündige Zugänge auch in einer digital gestützten Kartierungspraxis möglich sind
Social Capital and Fertility Intentions: The Case of Italy, Bulgaria, and West Germany
No full textDespite the many differences that exist between Italy, Bulgaria, and Germany, the threecountries are among those with the lowest fertility rates in Europe. However, they differ inthe level of public support for families and the role of informal supportive networks indaily life. Italy and Bulgaria, on the one hand, share very low levels of public support. Inboth countries, consequently, informal supportive networks based on family relationshipsand kinship have a strong tradition and a high relevance for getting things done. InGermany, however, support by family policy is much stronger and the importance of suchsupportive networks is weaker. The paper addresses the question whether these differentconstellations of public and informal social support have an impact on reproductivedecision-making. In particular, it concentrates on the impact of supportive networks onintentions to have a second child. Analyses based on data from the “Generations andGender Programme”, a comparative survey that was conducted recently in all threecountries, provide mixed results. While there is a significant influence of access toinformal support on the intention to have a second child in Bulgaria and no significanteffect in West Germany, findings for Italy obviously contradict theoretical propositionsand suggest that future analysis takes more comprehensive account of the work strategy ofthe mothers in the context of the current Italian labour market characteristics
Family Policies in the Context of Low Fertility and Social Structure
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyse the effectivity of family policies in the context of different assumptions regarding the social structure of a society. We use an agent based simulation model to analyse the impact of family policies on individual fertility decisions and on cohort fertility, intended fertility, and the fertility gap on the aggregate level. The crucial features of our simulation model are the agents' heterogeneity with respect to age, income, parity, and intended fertility, the social network and social influence. Our results indicate that both fixed and income dependent child supports have a positive and significant impact on fertility. However, several network and social influence parameters have the ability not only to influence fertility itself but also the effectivity of family policies. Therefore, policymakers aiming to transfer a certain policy mix that has proved successful from one country to another one ignoring differences in the social structure may fail. Family policies can only be successful if they explicitly take into account the characteristics of the society they are assigned for
Maximilian I. oder Friedrich III.? Überlegungen zur sogenannten Heinrichstafel in Münster. Römische Historische Mitteilungen|Römische Historische Mitteilungen 63|
No full textThe so-called “Heinrichstafel”, which has been attributed to the “Master of the legend of St. Barbara” (last quarter of the 15th century) and is now in the Westfälisches Landesmuseum (LWL-Museum of Arts and Culture) in Münster, is a triptych depicting some events reported in the biography of Emperor Henry II. Some research studies concerning the scenes represented on the board which are not mentioned in the source, the Vita Sancti Heinrici, and which clearly aim at describing the real political events, have considered these to be a clear reference to the age of Emperor Maximilian I. This study raises the question of whether this second level of interpretation should not rather be referred to Maximilian’s father, Emperor Frederick II. In fact, the coronation scene – that has been so prominently portrayed on the triptych and has no equivalent in the Vita Sancti Heinrici – can hardly be associated with the imperial coronation of Maximilian, which occurred only in 1508 and was not performed by the pope. Moreover, the scene probably contains some crypto portraits of Frederick III and Nicholas V. If this interpretation applies, and even if far from any realistic representation of the scene, the “Heinrichstafel” would in this case contain additional pictorial evidence of the imperial coronation of 1452
The Longevity of Academicians: Evidence from the Saxonian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig
No full textThis study addresses the mortality of the members of the Saxonian Academy of Sciencesand Humanities in Leipzig. In fact, learned societies have been shown to present vanguardgroups in the achievement of longevity. We use biographical records from the members ofthe Saxonian Academy of Sciences from 1846 to 2010 and compare their mortality toGerman life table estimates, where particularly attention is paid to the mortalitydifferentials between eastern and western Germany. The Saxonian academicians showindeed a higher life expectancy at age 60 than the general German male population, wherethe gap has been widening since the 1950s. Comparing the life expectancy values for theSaxonian academicians to available estimates of various European learned societies yieldsa similar longevity, suggesting that the survival of the academicians is less determined bynational mortality conditions but that academicians rather share a common healthadvantage
She Wants, He Wants: Couple’s Childbearing Desires in Austria
No full textThis paper analyses couples’ childbearing desires by using data from the Austrian Generationand Gender Survey (GGS) conducted in 2008. Couple disagreement is examined, first,independently of whether only she or he wants a child, second, by looking at the predictors ofhis and her dissent separately. Special emphasis is given to the role of the intra-householdbargaining power of each member of the couple. Results show that disagreement is most likelyfor all unmarried couples that do not have any common child and if the male partner isunemployed. Moreover, conflict increases in all partnerships with at least one common child ifthe female partner has brought biological children from a previous relationship into the currentunion. Generally speaking, women attribute more importance to their own desires than to theirpartner’s ones, while men give as much emphasis to their partner’s fertility desires as to theirown ones when they report their personal child-timing intentions. Couple disagreement is oneof the most relevant predictors of subsequent fertility behaviour
The relation between depressive symptoms and age among older Europeans Findings from SHARE
No full textEmpirical evidence on the effects of age on mental health is diverse. Therefore, the paperaims to analyze the association between age and the prevalence of symptoms ofdepression. Based on SHARE, depressive symptoms of 28,069 persons from elevenEuropean countries and Israel aged 50 to 84 years were analyzed using EURO-D.Multivariate regression models were applied to analyze the effect of age on depressivesymptoms under control of socio-economic characteristics and health. The results indicatethat EURO-D scores increased with age and were higher among women compared to men.When controlled by socio-demographic characteristics and health conditions theassociation between depressive symptoms and age almost vanished. The associationbetween depression and age is driven by socio-demographic characteristics and thephysical as well as cognitive health of older persons. Once controlled for these sociodemographiccharacteristics, age no longer had an important explanatory power on themental health of older persons