Concept of proximate determinants (cont.)

Proximate determinants of fertility

Davis and Blake (1956)3 identified a set of 11 'intermediate variables' which directly affect fertility which they grouped into the following three categories. Bongaarts (1978) further refined the list of proximate determinants.

Please note that the term 'marriage' is used as a proxy of entry to exposure to the risk of pregnancy, and refers to being in stable sexual union in this session for convenience.

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Factors affecting exposure to intercourse ('intercourse variables')

A. Those governing the formation and dissolution of unions in the reproductive period

  1. Age of entry into sexual unions
  2. Permanent celibacy: proportions of women never entering sexual unions
  3. Amount of reproductive period spent after or between unions
    1. When unions are broken by divorce, separation, or desertion
    2. When union are broken by death of husband

B. Those governing the exposure to intercourse within union

  1. Voluntary abstinence
  2. Involuntary abstinence (from impotence, illness, unavoidable but temporary separations)
  3. Coital frequency (excluding periods of abstinence)

Factors affecting exposure to conception ('conception variables')

  1. Fecundity or infecundity, as affected by involuntary causes
  2. Use or non-use of contraception
  3. Fecundity or infecundity, as affected by voluntary causes

Factors affecting gestation and successful parturition ('gestation variables')

  1. Foetal mortality from involuntary causes
  2. Foetal mortality from voluntary causes

The next page describes the various events of women’s reproductive life in details.

3 Davis, K. and J. Blake. 1956. Social structure and fertility: an analytic framework. Economic and Cultural Change 4(2):211-235.