Wednesday, August 17, 2011
TFR, Total fertility rate
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The total fertility rate (TFR, sometimes also called the fertility rate, period total fertility rate (PTFR) or total period fertility rate (TPFR)) of a population is the average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime if (1) she were to experience the exact current age-specific fertility rates (ASFRs) through her lifetime, and (2) she were to survive from birth through the end of her reproductive life.[1] It is obtained by summing the single-year age-specific rates at a given time.
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Basic sexological behaviors in the Italian Republic
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Since World War II, Italy has changed from a rural society to an industrial or post-industrial society. Agriculture now contributes only 2.9 percent to the Gross Domestic Product, against 32.1 percent for industry and 65 percent for the service sector. The service sector employs 60.1 percent of the labor force against 32.5 percent for industry and a scant 7.4 percent for agriculture. The per capita income in 1996 was $21,190, with clear differences on income, higher in the north and lower in the south.
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After World War I, social tensions and the growth of New Socialist and Catholic Mass parties convinced the ruling groups to help the Fascist movement, lead by Benito Mussolini, to take over power. The Fascist regime pursued a policy of repression of the working-class movement while favoring at the same time colonial expansion. Family policies were inspired by the desire to increase the fertility rate and to reinforce the position of the male head of the family. This policy received full support from the Catholic Church after the Lateran Treaty of 1929
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Fascist family legislation remained valid in Italy even after World War II, and the national government, dominated by the Catholic party, Democrazia Cristiana, opposed changes in family and gender relations.
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the Catholic religion is still the main source of values affecting sexuality, and the public pronouncements of the Pope are widely discussed in the mass media. Due to the Catholic Church’s opposition to a separation between procreation and sexuality, it has been impossible to introduce clear legislation regarding artificial insemination and other forms of medically assisted procreation. An administrative rule dating back to 1985, which applies only to hospitals and clinics falling under the public health system, admits medical assistance for procreation in case of married couples, but excludes the use of donors. Therefore, medically assisted procreation with the use of gametes from donors takes place only in private clinics, with possible health risks because of insufficient public control. Due to Catholic opposition, a new bill regarding medically assisted procreation, which was approved by the Commission for Social Affairs of the Chamber of Deputies in January 1998, still had not become law by the end of 1999.
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Most Italians leave the parental home only when they get married, and this holds true even for the older age groups: 68 percent of Italian males aged 35 and over and 63.3 percent of females who never married live with their parents.
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Eager to win the “demographic battle” in favor of population growth, the Fascist leaders introduced in 1930 legislation prohibiting publications and any other form of propaganda in favor of birth control. The production of condoms, as such, was not affected, because they were deemed necessary as a protection against venereal diseases. Subsidies and tax reductions for large families, jobs and better career chances for prolific fathers, higher taxation for bachelors, and health care for mothers and children were introduced in this period, but did not convince men, and above all women, to have more children. The main result of the prohibition of contraception was, therefore, an increase in the number of abortions. In addition, there was an increase in the number of illegitimate children, because economic hardship made it difficult to set up new households.
In the years after World War II, there was growing opposition against the Fascist legislation regarding contraception, which had remained valid in Italy even after the fall of Benito Mussolini.
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Since the legalization of contraception, the fertility rate has accelerated its decline. Notwithstanding the opposition of the Catholic Church, which has repeatedly reaffirmed its condemnation of contraception in the 1969 Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Pope Paul VI, the use of the contraceptive pill has increased, and almost tripled in the ten years between 1985 and 1996.
Some taboos survive however. In 1997, the installation of condom dispensers in a public high school caused a major outcry in the conservative press. The official newspaper of the Vatican, L’Osservatore Romano, spoke about an act of arrogance committed by a minority, even though according to public opinion polls, 79 percent of the Italians were in favor of the initiative.
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Under Fascism, public authorities shared the Catholic Church’s positive view about large families, and after the fall of Mussolini, they were slow to change their position. Not until 1971, did the Constitutional Court declare that ideas about population growth dating back to the Fascist period were not sufficient to justify the existence of legislation against contraception. To advance information about contraception and to promote responsible parenthood are part of the duties of the public family advisory agencies created in 1975.
In the postwar period, population planning concentrated on various maternity benefits.
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Today, Italy’s birthrate, expressed in Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is, with that of Spain, the lowest of 227 nations: 1.19 children per fertile woman. A TFR of 0.8 in the northern industrial city of Bologna underscores the social challenges Italy faces.
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still too much
should be negative
births after the first should be discouraged with any means
including severe taxation
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amun
:)
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