This is a request for continuation of a project that has conducted a life-history survey of Puerto Rican women in the New York metropolitan area. Utilizing these data and a 1982 CDC Sponsored life-history survey of women on the island of Puerto Rico, the research team has begun the task of analyzing the determinants of fertility with special attention to the impact of migration on the various dimensions of those determinants. Migration is conceptualized as potentially affecting fertility as a result of the 1) selectivity, 2) disruption, and 3) acculturation of migrants during the process. These migration-related mechanisms may have both direct and indirect (through influences on family formation, family disruption, labor force activity and other factors) effects, and they might have short- term or long-term effects. Several analytic strategies will be utilized to better determine the robustness of findings and to more flexibility approach specific research topics. The unifying analytic strategy consists of the use of partial likelihood event history models to articulate the determinants of various stages of the family formation process with special attention to the effects of migration. The analysis will rely heavily on a merged New York-Island data file, but will also utilize each data file alone as appropriate. The focus on the family formation process means that the analysis will focus on various points in the formation sequence, including premarital fertility, nuptiality, marital disruption and the formation of female-headed households, first through forth parities, and types of marital unions and transitions. Special attention will be given to labor force experience determinants and consequences, contraceptive use patterns and to a possible minority status effect on fertility. The analysis will examine return migration to Puerto Rico in much the same way that the mainland flow is to be studied. A fully documented public use file will be prepared.
