Fertility Variation among the U. S. Foreign Stock Population in 1900 1

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, the United States population included a large number of first and second generation immigrants from European countries, often with relatively high fertility levels. This article investigates the degree to which fertility behavior changed as a result of social structural characteristics of the environment such as urbanization and children's role, the diffusion of fertility values and information from the native population, and the role of cultural values or resistance to change. On the whole, little evidence is found that adaptation was culturally unique, although groups maintained distinctive fertility levels over generations. Substantial evidence suggests that immigrant women modified their fertility behavior as a consequence of social structural factors and contact with the native U.S. population.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Coale

A.J.

1970 “The Decline of Fertility in Europe from the French Revolution to World War II”. In Fertility and Family Planning: A World View. Edited by Behrman

S.J.

, Leslie

Corsa

and Ronald

Freedman

. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Pp. 3–24.

Coale

A.J.

, Anderson

B.A.

and Harm

1979 Human Fertility in Russia Since the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Fischer

C.S.

1975 “Toward a Subcultural Theory of Urbanism”, American Journal of Sociology, 80:1319–1341.

Guest

A.M.

1981a “Social Structure and U.S. Interstate Fertility Differentials in 1900”, Demography, 18:465–486.

Guest

A.M.

1981b “U.S. Rural Fertility Variation in 1900”. Unpublished paper. Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington.

Knodel

1977 “Family Limitation and the Fertility Transition: Evidence from the Age Patterns of Fertility in Europe and Asia”, Population Studies, 31:219–248.

Knodel

1974 The Decline of Fertility in Germany, 1871-1935. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Lesthaeghe

R.J.

1977 The Decline of Belgian Fertility, 1800-1970. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Livi-Bacci

1977 A History of Italian Fertility During the Last Two Centuries. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

10.

Munch

P.A.

1949 “Social Adjustment among Wisconsin Norwegians”, American Sociological Review, 14:780–789.

11.

Richards

1977 “Fertility Decline in Germany: An Economical Appraisal”, Population Studies, 31:537–553.

12.

U.S. Bureau of the Census 1907 Child Labor in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

13.

U.S. Bureau of the Census 1906 Special Reports. Supplementary Analysis and Derivative Tables. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

14.

U.S. Bureau of the Census 1905 Proportion of Children in the United States. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

15.

U.S. Census Office 1902 Population, Part II. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

16.

U.S. Immigration Commission 1911a Reports of the Immigration Commission. Abstracts of Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. I. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

17.

U.S. Immigration Commission 1911b Reports of the Immigration Commission. Abstracts of Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. II. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

18.

U.S. Immigration Commission 1911c Reports of the Commission. Fecundity of Immigrant Women. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.

19.

van de Walle

and Knodel

1980 “Europe's Fertility Transition: New Evidence and Lessons for Today's Developing World”, Population Bulletin, 34:1–43.