10.5061/DRYAD.HMGQNK9F0
Pink, Katharina
0000-0003-0381-8142
KU Leuven
Quinlan, Robert
Washington State University
Hin, Saskia
KU Leuven
Famine related mortality in early life and accelerated life histories in
19th Century Belgium
Dryad
dataset
2020
FOS: Biological sciences
2020-10-13T00:00:00Z
2020-10-13T00:00:00Z
en
7736792 bytes
4
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
Density-dependent and extrinsic mortality are predicted to accelerate
reproductive maturation. The first 5 years of life is a proposed sensitive
period for life-history regulation. This study examines the ways in which
local mortality during this sensitive period was related to subsequent
marriage timing in 19th Century Belgium (N women= 11,892; N men=14,140).
Local mortality during the sensitive period was inversely associated with
age at first marriage for men and women controlling for literacy,
occupational status, population growth, and migration. Cox regression
indicated decreased time to marriage for women (HR=1.661, 95% CI:
1.542-1.789) and men (HR=1.327, 95%CI: 1.238-1.422) from high mortality
municipalities. Rising population growth rates were associated with
earlier marriage for men. Migration in general was associated with later
marriage for men and women. Consistent with life history predictions,
harsh ecological conditions such as famine coincided with earlier
marriage.
Data were collected from population censuses, statistical yearbooks and
civil registers. The study population (N women= 11,892; N men= 14,140) was
selected based on a database of marriage certificates from the province of
Flemish Brabant (then including the capital of Brussels) from people who
were born throughout Belgium between 1841-1845. Individuals were
distributed equally among the birth years (each birth cohort represents
around 20% of the total sample). Mortality data were collected at the
municipality level from population censuses and statistical yearbooks for
the period 1841-1850. We obtained the mortality data as well as figures on
number of marriages between 1841-1900 and number of deaths between
1841-1850 from the Historical Databases of Local and Cadastral Statistics
(LOKSTAT-POPPKAD), Ghent University, Quetelet Centre. We included women
between 15-40 years and men between 15-50 years. In the following
subsections, first the economic background is highlighted, and
subsequently covariates are introduced.