Regional—sub-cultural explanations of black fertility in the United States

Summary

This paper re-examines the relevance of the hypothesis concerning the Southern sub-culture and black fertility in the United States. According to zero-order correlation analysis, Southern-born blacks show higher fertility than those born in other regions. But a dummy-variable regression technique applied to the data from the 1970 public-use sample indicates that the Southern origin — independent of other factors-is not different from other regions. Southern birth has the effect of increasing black fertility, but much less so than birth in the North Central region. Southern blacks show higher fertility because of their lower socio-economic background. It is concluded that geographical regions in the United States have little or no cultural meaning in explaining reproductive behaviour.

The research on which this paper is based was carried out at Ohio State University. The author wishes to express appreciation to Professor William Petersen for helpful suggestions at various stages of the research. Acknowledgement is also due to George Mori for a critical reading of an earlier draft. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Statistics Canada.

The research on which this paper is based was carried out at Ohio State University. The author wishes to express appreciation to Professor William Petersen for helpful suggestions at various stages of the research. Acknowledgement is also due to George Mori for a critical reading of an earlier draft. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Statistics Canada.

Notes

The research on which this paper is based was carried out at Ohio State University. The author wishes to express appreciation to Professor William Petersen for helpful suggestions at various stages of the research. Acknowledgement is also due to George Mori for a critical reading of an earlier draft. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Statistics Canada.