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Recent Scientific Accomplishments DeRose researches the demography of underdevelopment: demographic outcomes and decision-making processes in disadvantaged contexts, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research contributions are in three main areas: 1) fertility effects of educational reversals, 2) the meaning of education in underdeveloped settings, and 3) the demography of hunger, expanded to include breastfeeding and related public health issues. Her work on the demographic effects of declining school enrollments highlights the public policy implications of a trend that runs counter to most historical experience. Her work on the meaning of education defines social contexts in which the impact of education is less than expected (e.g., where polygyny is declining), but also identifies social situations where some education is associated with profound change (e.g., where men’s fertility desires are declining). Finally, her work on the demography of hunger highlights that gender inequality does not necessarily manifest itself in all the expected domains. She has shown few gender differences in access to food that are not associated with the nutritional demands of reproduction (published by United Nations University Press and in Population and Development Review). Her research also contributes to understanding how women combine their productive and reproductive responsibilities. Her 2007 article in Economic Development and Culture Change showed that breastfeeding durations increased in Ghana during a period when women’s labor force participation was on the rise due largely to successful public health interventions. However, she also showed that men may put more pressure on their wives to curtail breastfeeding to resume sexual relations as outside partnerships become less attractive because of HIV risk. DeRose does not currently have any externally funded research. She has a pending RO3 submitted to NICHD in October 2006. See below under Future Research Plans. DeRose's work is beginning to explore the effects of HIV prevalence in the community on fertility and marital timing. The individual-level effects of HIV on fertility are well known: infected women have fewer children. However, living in a community where prevalence is high could motivate earlier/more childbearing through a variety of mechanisms. Her R03 proposal explores many aspects of community changes due to HIV/AIDS. The empirical questions will include: 1) whether HIV prevalence can explain recent fertility increase in Kenya; 2) whether the fertility response to increased child mortality depends on its source (do people respond differently if adults are dying too?); and 3) whether fertility increases represent higher lifetime fertility or simply earlier completion of childbearing in a context of uncertainty. She is also, jointly with Sangeetha Madhavan, developing an analysis of the effect of HIV on marital timing with particular attention to how the epidemic may affect young women differently according to their socioeconomic status. | ||||||||
Maryland Population Research Center
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