Spousal age differences are a salient dimension of assortative matching in marriage markets, yet evidence on their relationship with marital stability remains mixed and often uses linear specifications. This study examines whether spousal age differences are associated with the risk of first divorce and whether large age gaps reflect distinct types of unions within gendered marriage markets. Using longitudinal data from Waves 1–20 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, we estimate Cox proportional hazards models of first divorce. Age differences are modelled both continuously and categorically to capture non-linearities and to distinguish between male-older and female-older unions. The results show a non-linear pattern across the specified age-gap categories that differs by gender direction. Moderate age differences (4–10 years) are associated with divorce risks similar to age-homogamous marriages, whereas very large age gaps (> 10 years) are linked to substantially lower divorce hazards. This pattern is concentrated in male-older unions, while age differences in female-older marriages show little association with divorce risk. The associations persist after covariate adjustment. Selective matching remains a possible explanation, but the analysis neither establishes selection as the cause nor rules out causal pathways related to age differences. More broadly, the results highlight the importance of non-linear associations and gender asymmetry in understanding how marriage markets structure union stability.
In coastal cities, informal settlers experience the highest exposure to flooding under climate change, and local authorities use planned relocation as an adaptation strategy to support flood-mitigation measures. Post-relocation, many families return to informal settlements instead of settling in formal vertical social housing (rusunawa). This paper examines the pattern and drivers of return migration from rusunawa to informal settlements (kampung) in coastal Jakarta and how return reproduces informality. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, the study combines quantitative data from household surveys of families relocated to Rusunawa Marunda and Rusunawa Muara Baru, conducted in 2015 and 2017, with qualitative data in the same neighborhoods in 2025. We conducted in-depth interviews with 53 informants, including 35 returned households who were relocated and surveyed in 2015 and 2017. Findings show that return migration peaked between six and twelve months after relocation, coinciding with the expiry of rent subsidies. The move from informal to formal housing produces four difficulties: loss of income sources, rigid housing arrangements, disrupted community ties, and exclusion from decision-making. Return restores livelihoods and social support, yet it is a constrained form of agency that leaves households with insecure tenure and flood exposure. Relocation should be designed for livelihood continuity and participatory governance, not displacement alone.
Fertility remains high in most sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, despite three decades of population policies and programmes. Guided by Bongaarts’ proximate determinants, Easterlin’s supply-demand, and Caldwell’s wealth flows theories, this study examined trends and determinants of completed fertility among women aged 45–49, including childless women. Using a weighted sample of 9,227 married women aged 45–49 years from five rounds of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (2003–2024), descriptive and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were conducted in Stata 15. Completed fertility remained persistently high but declined modestly from 7.0 children in 2003 to 5.8 in 2024, with significant variations by education, wealth, religion, couple’s fertility desires, age at first birth, age at first marriage, and region, with disproportionately higher levels observed in the North-central and North-east. The observed downward trend and its associated factors align with the theoretical perspectives employed: improvements in female schooling and household wealth diminish the desired family size and lessen barriers to fertility control under Easterlin’s supply-demand model, while indicating a transition from upward to downward flows of intergenerational support as proposed by Caldwell, enacted via Bongaarts’ proximate pathways of postponed marital union, deferred onset of childbearing, and greater contraceptive uptake. Pronatalist religious norms sustain higher demand in some sub-populations. Policies should prioritise girls’ education, women’s economic empowerment, delayed marriage, and expanded family planning, with male-engagement and regionally tailored strategies to shift fertility norms and accelerate transition in line with SDGs 3 and 5.
Gender-based violence (GBV) negatively impacts women, families, and communities throughout the world. More than one in three women experience GBV in their lifetime. The United Nations identifies gender equity and the elimination of violence against females as important goals for sustainable development. While Spanish-speaking countries are diverse in their economic development and resources, gender inequality is prevalent and GBV is a major public health problem. This scoping review aimed to identify and report on intervention strategies in addressing GBV across Spanish-speaking countries. The PICOS framework was applied to develop the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Nine academic databases were searched from 2000 through December 2025. Characteristics of interventions and program outcomes were identified and tabulated. The review identified 39 intervention studies conducted across eight Spanish-speaking countries, focused on primary (n = 14), secondary (n = 6) and tertiary (n = 19) prevention levels. Studies used a variety of research methods, many with limited sample sizes or no comparison groups. Seven studies used a theoretical framework or model. All primary and secondary prevention approaches had some positive findings; tertiary approaches had more nuanced results. Successfully addressing GBV demands a variety of approaches, working in school and community settings, as well as in shelters for women with GBV and in criminal justice settings with men incarcerated for GBV. Small sample sizes, lack of comparison groups, and limited follow-up assessments limit the methodological strength of some studies in this review. Limited research-based literature addressed GBV in Spanish-language dominant countries; further research is very much needed.
This article examines the spatial organisation of fertility postponement across English local authorities. Rather than treating the education-fertility gradient as a placeless average, it asks whether low period fertility is organised as a geographically coherent local regime. The analysis combines 2024 local-authority total fertility rates with Census 2021 Level 4 + educational attainment, housing affordability, earnings, deprivation, internal migration, official projection outputs and local-authority boundary data. Adjusted current-fertility models show a strong negative association between the Level 4 + share and total fertility rate, net of affordability, earnings and deprivation. Local indicators of spatial association show that raw fertility, educational composition and adjusted fertility residuals remain spatially clustered. A low-fertility/high-education regime is concentrated in London, including Camden, Islington, Westminster, Southwark, Lambeth and Wandsworth. Spatial autoregressive impact decomposition shows that the education association splits between direct local and neighbouring-area components, supporting a spatial-demographic interpretation of fertility postponement. Projection models are analysed separately as projection-sensitivity exercises because projected working-age growth and old-age dependency already encode assumptions about migration, age structure and fertility. The article contributes to place-based demography by showing that fertility postponement is not only an individual life-course process aggregated to places, but a spatially embedded regional-planning issue. It also cautions against treating official projection outputs as independent future observations in local statistical models.
