Family size, adolescents' schooling and the demographic transition: Evidence from Brazil

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to address whether and how the changing family sizes of cohorts born before and after the demographic transition are associated with increasing schooling in Brazil. Multivariate analyses of nationally representative data demonstrate that, although a higher proportion of adolescents born after the demographic transition live in smaller families, they also suffer a greater disadvantage from being in larger families than their peers born before the demographic transition. Additional case studies and comparative works are needed to disentangle the mechanisms behind the dynamic association between sibship size and adolescents' educational attainment found in this study. © 2010 Leticia Marteleto.