Women's Education and the Timing of Marriage and Childbearing in the Next Generation: Evidence from Rural Bangladesh (original) (raw)
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The effect of education on the timing of marriage in Kenya
Demographic Research, 2005
This paper investigates the effect of education on the timing of marriage among Kenyan women and the relative effects of education across generations of women. Data used is drawn from the 1998 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The Cox proportional hazard model and linear regression analysis are used to analyse the data. The results show that education has a statistically significant and strong positive effect on a woman's age at first marriage; the effect remaining robust in the presence of a number of controls. The highly educated women are more likely to delay marriage. Significant variations in the effect of education across the generations of women are apparent. The effect is greater for the younger women, indicating increased postponement of marriage. Premarital sexual activity, premarital childbearing, region of residence, religion and year of birth are also significantly associated with age at first marriage.
The effect of education on the timing of marriage and first birth in Pakistan
A rapid rise in women's education levels, an increase in the age at marriage and an increase in the age at which they have their Þrst child are key features of demographic transition in any country. Education is considered to be an essential component in this process because increases in educational attainment are likely to signiÞcantly affect both age at marriage and the duration between marriage and Þrst birth -in particular increasing both the age at marriage and the time to Þrst child. This paper uses individual level unit record data from Pakistan to examine the effect of education on the age at marriage and on the duration between marriage and Þrst birth. We jointly estimate educational attainment, age at marriage and duration between marriage and Þrst birth allowing for household level unobserved heterogeneity. Our estimation results show that ignoring correlation between the heterogeneity terms in the three main variables of interest results in inconsistent estimates. We Þnd that educated women marry signiÞcantly later but education does not have any impact on the duration between marriage and Þrst birth.
The effect of education on the timing of marriage and first conception in Pakistan
A rapid rise in women's education levels, an increase in the age at marriage and an increase in the age at which they have their Þrst child are key features of demographic transition in any country. Education is considered to be an essential component in this process because increases in educational attainment are likely to signiÞcantly affect both age at marriage and the duration between marriage and Þrst birth -in particular increasing both the age at marriage and the time to Þrst child. This paper uses individual level unit record data from Pakistan to examine the effect of education on the age at marriage and on the duration between marriage and Þrst birth. We jointly estimate educational attainment, age at marriage and duration between marriage and Þrst birth allowing for household level unobserved heterogeneity. Our estimation results show that ignoring correlation between the heterogeneity terms in the three main variables of interest results in inconsistent estimates. We Þnd that educated women marry signiÞcantly later but education does not have any impact on the duration between marriage and Þrst birth.
Marrying Young: The Surprising Effect of Education
In a traditional marriage market, family's preferences and beliefs over bride types play a significant role in matching. In this paper, we study how an exogenous increase in female education, a preferred attribute in the marriage market, affects her age at marriage. The District Primary Education Program (DPEP) launched in India in 1994, provides a regression discontinuity setup to estimate the causal impact of education. Using Demographic Health Survey (DHS) 2015-16 data, we find that the program leads to an increase in women's education by 0.8-1.5 years. Next, to see the impact of education on age at marriage, we use the program cutoff as an instrument for education. In contrast to the literature, we find one year increase in education leads to a decrease in age at marriage by 0.44 years. Using a simple transferable utility model, we provide a framework for a negative relationship between education and age at marriage. As educated and young brides are more desirable in the marriage market, educated women are cleared from the marriage market before less educated women. Further, we find that an increase in education leads to a stable match. Finally, we check if the effect of education on age at marriage varies by the availability of an outside option in the labor market. Our results indicate that educated women in highwage districts on average marry later than those in low-wage districts. A 100 rupee increase in women's wages (25 percent of weekly income) leads to a delay in the age at marriage for educated women by 0.1 years.
A model of women’s educational factors related to delaying girls’ marriage
International Review of Education, 2012
Delaying girls' early marriage is a critical public health and education goal in developing countries, in which their own or their mothers' education may play an important role. This paper reviews the existing evidence of any relationship between girls' schooling or women's literacy education and delayed marriage for themselves or their daughters. The majority of research reports focus on the correlation between girls' schooling and brides' age at first marriage. But it is conceivable that adult women's/mothers' literacy education also has considerable influence on the age at which their daughters are married. Since this aspect has hitherto not been explicitly investigated, the authors propose a model -based on relevant research about the outcomes of girls' schooling and women's literacy education -of the mechanisms that mediate between women's education and delayed marriage for their daughters. The authors argue for research that will inform policy makers interested in helping girls complete secondary schooling about the potential contributions of adult women's literacy education to this goal.
The role of education in child and adolescent marriage in rural lowland Nepal
Journal of Biosocial Science, 2022
Marriage during childhood and adolescence adversely affects maternal and child health and well-being, making it a critical global health issue. Analysis of factors associated with women marrying ≥18 years has limited utility in societies where the norm is to marry substantially earlier. This paper investigated how much education Nepali women needed to delay marriage across the range of ages from 15 to ≥18 years. Data on 6,406 women aged 23-30 years were analysed from the Low Birth Weight South Asia Trial on the early-marrying and low-educated Maithili-speaking Madhesi population in Terai, Nepal. Multivariable logistic regression models assessed the associations of women's education with marrying aged ≥15, ≥16, ≥17 and ≥18 years. Cox proportional hazards regression models quantified the hazard of marrying. Models adjusted for caste affiliation. Women married at median age of 15 years and three-quarters were uneducated. Women's primary and lower-secondary education were weakly associated with delaying marriage, whether the cutoff to define early marriage was 15, 16, 17 or 18 years, with stronger associations for secondary education. Caste associations were weak. Overall, models explained relatively little of the variance in the likelihood of marriage at different ages. The joint effects of lowersecondary and higher caste affiliation and of secondary/higher education and mid and higher caste affiliation reduced the hazard of marrying. In early-marrying and low-educated societies, changing caste-based norms are unlikely to delay women's marriage. Research on broader risk factors and norms that are more relevant for delaying marriage in these contexts is needed. Gradual increases in women's median marriage age and increased secondary education may, over time, reduce child and adolescent marriage.
Trends in the timing of first marriage among men and women in the developing world
2005
The timing of first union merits investigation not only because of the close temporal link between marriage and the onset of childbearing, but also because the age when men and women marry has implications for the organization of family life and for gender relations within society. This paper begins by reviewing the contributions of various social science disciplines to an understanding of the timing of marriage. Using current status data from 73 countries provided by the United Nations Population Division and retrospective data from 52 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1990 and 2001, we then examine recent trends in the timing of first marriage or union for men and women in the developing world. With the exception of South America for both sexes and South and Southeast Asia for men, substantial declines have occurred in the proportion of young men and women who are married. Given the differentials in the timing of marriage by educational attainment and residence, we assess whether the decline in the proportion of young people who are married is related to increases in schooling and urbanization. Expansion of schooling for women has had some impact, but a considerable portion of the reduction in early marriage is not explained by changes in levels of education. We consider other factors that might account for the increase in age at marriage. Finally, we review what is known about the consequences of changing age at marriage with a particular focus on risk of HIV infection.
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2020
Early marriage (EM) and early childbearing (ECB) have far‐reaching consequences. This study describes the prevalence, trends, inequalities, and drivers of EM and ECB in South Asia using eight rounds of Demographic and Health Survey data across 13 years. We report the percentage of ever‐married women aged 20–24 years (n = 105,150) married before 18 years (EM) and with a live birth before 20 years (ECB). Relative trends were examined using average annual rate of reduction (AARR). Inequalities were examined by geography, marital household wealth, residence, and education. Sociodemographic drivers of changes for EM were assessed using regression decomposition analyses. We find that EM/ECB are still common in Bangladesh (69%/69%), Nepal (52%/51%), India (41%/39%), and Pakistan (37%/38%), with large subnational variation in most countries. EM has declined fastest in India (AARR of –3.8%/year), Pakistan (–2.8%/year), and Bangladesh (–1.5%/year), but EM elimination by 2030 will not occur at...