The Demographic and Behavioral Sciences Branch is one of three programs in the Center for Population Research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. The mission of the Branch is to foster research on the processes that determine population size, growth, composition and distribution, and on the determinants and consequences of those processes. This mission translates into a research portfolio that looks intensively at the demographic processes of fertility, mortality and migration and at their broad interrelationships with larger social, economic and cultural processes. Areas of supported research include fertility and family planning, HIV and sexually transmitted disease, family and household demography, mortality and health, and population composition, change, and movement. A variety of disciplinary perspectives may be applied, including demography, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, geography, history, public health and statistics.
Multidisciplinary research is encouraged.
In addition to funds for basic research, the Branch also provides training and infrastructure support to assure the preparation of future generations of scientists and the development of research.