What Stood Behind the Length of the Birth Intervals in the Past: Case Study of Jablonec Nad Nisou (Czech lands) from the 17th to 19th Century
Abstrakt
The aim of this paper was to describe in detail the birth intervals in Jablonec nad Nisou (Czech lands) from 17th to 19th century. In the study large dataset including more than 2 thousands families were used.
Records about children (individual data) were analyzed by above all the survival analysis and Cox regression. It was found that marriage-birth intervals in historical population were significantly influenced by the high proportion of prenuptial conceptions.
In the study of birth-birth intervals more explanatory variables were used and showed to be significant (birth parity, age of mother at marriage or at birth of the child, etc.). Average birth-birth intervals were shorter for higher birth parity (contrary to traditional studies), age of mother at birth of child was more important for prolonging the intervals.
Detailed results will be discussed in comparison to the conclusions of other studies using the traditional methods of historical demographic analysis.