Early and Very Early Family Formation in Bangladesh by Mohammad Salim Zahangir Magister Thesis in Demography, June 2011 Interdisciplinary Magister Course in Demography Demography Unit, Department of Sociology, Stockholm University Supervisor Gunnar Andersson, PhD Professor of Demography Demography Unit Department of Sociology Stockholm University Sweden Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine the causes and consequences of teenage family formation of women in Bangladesh. For that purpose the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) data are used. Multinomial logistic regression analysis shows that background factors such as type of place of residence, religion and ever attendance of schooling are important for distinguishing women who marry at „early‟ or „very early‟ ages from those who marry at more mature ages. Administrative region and woman‟s birth cohort matter as well. In socioeconomic terms, due to teenage family formation the majority of girls receive little or no education, more often get involved in low-paid work and often turn out to lack exposure to mass media. In demographic terms, because of teenage family formation girls become exposed to greater spousal age differences, experience longer duration from marriage to first birth and achieve higher completed fertility. Page 2 of 43 Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 Introduction to early marriage formation in Bangladesh 5 1.2 Trends in teenage marriage formation in Bangladesh 6 1.3 Prevalence of marriage in Bangladesh 7 1.4 Previous research on early marriage in Bangladesh 8 1.5 Research questions 13 2 DATA 14 2.1 Source of data 14 2.2 Data evaluation 16 3 ANTECEDENTS OF EARLY MARRIAGE FORMATION 18 3.1 Background factors affecting the timing of first marriage 18 3.2 Odds ratios on ages of marriage formation by selected background factors 24 4 CONSEQUENCES OF EARLY MARRIAGE FORMATION 27 4.1 Impact of teenage family formation on socioeconomic outcomes 27 4.2 Impact of teenage family formation on demographic outcomes 30 4.3 Age at marriage vs. fertility in Bangladesh 34 5 CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS 35 Acknowledgement 38 References 39 Page 3 of 43 List of Tables and Figures Figure 1: Observed line and trend line on mean age at marriage by years of 6 marriage of women in Bangladesh Table 1: Percentage of women who have never married, by age group, as 7 reported in various surveys, Bangladesh 1975-2007 Table 2: Percentage of women married at different ages distributed by current age 16 (in 5-year groups) Table 3: Percentage of women married at different ages distributed by current age 18 (in single years) Table 4: Descriptive statistics of women by background factors 19 Table 5: Percentage distribution of age at marriage of women on selected 21 background factors Table 6: Multinomial logistic regression coefficients and odds ratios of early 25 and very early first marriage, by background factors. Ever-married women aged 20-49 in Bangladesh Table 7: Basic descriptive statistics of women on socioeconomic factors 27 Table 8: Percentage distribution of women by age at first marriage on selected 29 socioeconomic characteristics Table 9: Descriptive statistics of women on selected demographic factors 31 Table10: Percentage distribution of women by age at marriage on selected 33 demographic factors Figure 2: Mean CEB of different ages at married and of all ever-married 34 women aged 45-49 in Bangladesh Page 4 of 43 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction to early marriage formation in Bangladesh „Family‟ means there are two or more persons who are related by blood, marriage or cohabitation, and living in the same residence (Fields and Casper, 2001). In Bangladesh a family builds up through marriage and there are strong social vows against child bearing outside of marriage (Caldwell, 2005). Traditionally marriage in Bangladesh occurs very early (Aziz and Maloney, 1985; Maloney et al., 1981; Lindenbaum, 1981). Between 1960s and 1970s several studies had been done and reported very low age at marriage (Khuda, 1985; Obaidullah, 1966; Sadiq, 1965) which is still prevailing (Kabir et al., 2001). Moreover, adolescent and child marriage continues to be a strong social norm, particularly for girls (Field, 2004). Parents always remain in anxiety to protect virginity of their daughters as before marriage any sexual blame against girls is assess as a big sin and socially lookdown too. Besides, daughters are viewed as a burden, mainly in poor families as at nuptial time parents needs to pay dowry to grooms and the amount of dowry increases with increasing bride‟s age. As a result, the prevalence of teenage marriage is very common in Bangladesh, especially in poor society. Caldwell (2005) stated that early marriage is almost always associated with early childbearing. Due to early marriage and childbearing, women in Bangladesh face numerous negative social and health consequences; such as an abuse of girls‟ human rights (Schuler et al., 2005; UNICEF, 2001), a cause of sexual diseases and therefore the ultimate results might be morbidity and mortality during pregnancy and delivery (Zabin and Kiragu, 1998) and of infant and child morbidity and mortality (Casterline and Trussell, 1980; Zabin and Kiragu, 1998; Ikamari, 2005). Clearly early marriage offers longer reproductive span so it contributes substantially to rapid population growth (Bongaarts, 1994). Through analyzing the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2007 data we found that 50 percent of girls leave paternal house to fabricate a new family with marital partner at aged below 16. Our study reveals that this has several negative consequences. Girls, who marry as teenagers rear in poorer families, obtain no/lower levels of schooling and consequently get married with husbands of lower socio-economic status, and have less reproductive control. Page 5 of 43 1.2 Trends in teenage marriage formation in Bangladesh Demographers already have demonstrated that teenage marriage of women is very common in Bangladesh. As an introduction to our study we observe the trend of early marriage formation in relation to calendar time and how far the trend line is from legal age of women in Bangladesh. Observed line and trend line of mean age at marriage by years of marriage of women in Bangladesh 17.0 Observed line Trend line 16.5 y = 1.0131x + 12.53 16.0 15.5 15.0 14.5 14.0 Mean age at marriage at age Mean 13.5 13.0 1968-1977 1978-1987 1988-1997 1998-2007 Years of marriage Figure 1: Observed line and trend line on mean age at marriage by years of marriage of women in Bangladesh According to the 2007 BDHS data (own calculations) the mean age at marriage of women is only 15.47 years while in 1984, through a government order the minimum legal age at marriage for women in Bangladesh was fixed at 18 years. From the observed line of figure 1, during 1968-77 women went in-laws residence at an average age of just 13.5 which might be just earlier or launching of puberty of a girl. There is an increasing trend of age at marriage among the women who got married in the next ten years on average age at marriage was nearly 14.8 years for the period 1978-87. Even though the increasing trend continues with time, it shows somewhat slower increase during the period 1988-97 compared to the period 1998-2007. Thus, the mean age at marriage was about 15.5 years among women who got married between 1988 and 1997 and that reached approximately 16.6 years for women who married between 1998 and 2007. Despite of gradual increasing trend, till now the mean age at marriage is far below the legal age at marriage of Bangladesh. By analyzing the trend line, mean age at marriage is increased by only 1.01 years per each ten-year time interval. As a result, to Page 6 of 43 reach mean age at marriage of women in Bangladesh at 18 years it should have been necessitated to wait until several years after 2020. Evidently, in Bangladesh, girls usually go to formulate marital life as a teenager. There are various socioeconomic, environmental, cultural and demographic factors that might partially act as supporting indicators to teenage marriage formation. 1.3 Prevalence of marriage in Bangladesh Before proceeding with our analysis we need to know the percent of women who do not marry at age 45 or at all. Women aged lower than 45-50 have physical capacity to give birth. Therefore if their have a significant amount of never married women, they might have an impact on family dynamics in Bangladesh. Table 1 represents the percent of never married women by age groups reported from various surveys in Bangladesh 1975-2007. Table 1: Percentage of women who have never married, by age group, as reported in various surveys, Bangladesh 1975-2007 1993- 1996- 1999- 1975 1983 1985 1989 1989 1991 2004 2007 Age 1994 1997 2000 BFS CPS CPS BFS CPS CPS BDHS BDHS BDHS BDHS BDHS 10-14 91.2 98.0 98.7 96.2 96.4 98.5 95.2 95.2 92.7 88.6 U 15-19 29.8 34.2 47.5 49.0 45.8 46.7 50.5 49.8 51.9 52.1 52.8 20-24 4.6 4.0 7.1 12.0 9.3 12.3 12.4 17.2 18.5 15.2 14.3 25-29 1.0 0.7 1.0 2.3 1.6 2.8 2.2 3.4 4.2 4.2 4.3 30-34 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.5 0.1 1.2 0.6 35-39 0.4 - - 0.1 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 40-44 0.1 0.1 - 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.2 45-49 0.0 0.1 - 0.1 0.1 - 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.8 - = Less than 0.1 percent, u = (Unknown (not available) Sources: 1975 Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS) (MHPC, 1978:49); 1983, 1985, 1989, and 1991 Contraceptive Prevalence Surveys (CPSs) (Mitra et al., 1993:24); 1989 BFS (Huq and Cleland, 1990:43); 1993-1994 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) (Mitra et al, 1994:72); 1996-1997 BDHS (Mitra et al.,1997:82); and 1999-2000 BDHS (NIPORT et al., 2001:78) Pre-marital birth is very exceptional in Bangladesh, thus the fertility behavior would be changed if a considerable proportion of females remains single during reproductive span.