Shen C, Williamson J B
School of Education, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 1999 Jul;49(2):197-214. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00112-4.
While much has been written about the medical, economic, and social causes of cross-national differences in some mortality related phenomena such as in life expectancy and infant mortality, much less attention has been given to maternal mortality, the focus of the present study. In the studies of maternal mortality that have been done, there has been very little effort to assess the potential relevance of the gender stratification and dependency theory perspectives. Using lagged cross-sectional and path analysis with a sample of 79 less developed countries, this article focuses on the impact of predictors linked to three theoretical perspectives - modernization, economic dependency, and gender stratification. We find that women's status, as measured by indicators such as level of education relative to men, age at first marriage, and reproductive autonomy, is a strong predictor of maternal mortality. We find that economic dependency, especially multinational corporate investment, has a detrimental effect on maternal mortality that is mediated by its harmful impacts on economic growth and the status of women. We also find support for developmental theory, a variant of modernization theory.
虽然已有大量文献探讨了一些与死亡率相关现象（如预期寿命和婴儿死亡率）的跨国差异的医学、经济和社会原因，但对孕产妇死亡率的关注却少得多，而孕产妇死亡率正是本研究的重点。在已开展的孕产妇死亡率研究中，很少有人努力评估性别分层和依附理论视角的潜在相关性。本文采用滞后横截面分析和路径分析方法，以79个欠发达国家为样本，重点关注与三种理论视角（现代化、经济依附和性别分层）相关的预测因素的影响。我们发现，用诸如相对于男性的教育水平、初婚年龄和生殖自主权等指标衡量的女性地位，是孕产妇死亡率的有力预测因素。我们发现，经济依附，尤其是跨国公司投资，对孕产妇死亡率有不利影响，这种影响是通过其对经济增长和女性地位的有害影响来介导的。我们还发现了对发展理论（现代化理论的一个变体）的支持。
