Direct and Indirect Effects of Socioeconomic Factors on Age at First Marriage in Slum Areas , Bangladesh Shamima Akter, Md. Mizanur Rahman Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development , Universily of R句 shahi ， Rajshahi-6205 , Bangladesh
Abstract: This arti c\ e attempts to examine the influence of some selected predictor variables on female age at first marria'ge in slum areas of Bangladesh. A path and multiple c\ assification analysis (MCA) approach have been adopted. Authors thought that responden t' s educational level and the mass media such as watching television have a significant direct impact on age at marriage , while the types of family and occupational status have an indirect effect on age at marriage. Key words: age at first marriage, slum areas , MCA and path analysis
1
Introduction
Marriage refers to the stage that a man and a woman are socially or legally permi仗时 to live together. The Govemment of Bangladesh ordered in 1984 , the legislative age for mamag巳 was fixed at 18 years old for female and 21 years old fo~ male. However, in the countryside , villagers hardly know this requiremen t. Even among those people who do know it, th巳y do not get married at the legislative age and this requirement has little impact on them (I slam and Ahm ed, 1998). A large portion of marriages still take place before the legal age; around 79% of Bangladeshi women get married before the age of 20 years (Mitra and Associates , 2005). Early marriage is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh with one-third of girls aged below 15 (33%) and nearly three-quarters aged below 18 years (74%) being married. Among the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh , R起j shahi has the highest early marriage rate (81 %) compared to the lowest in Sylhet (58%) (B8S-UN1CEF, 2007). Marriage in most Asian societies defines the beginning of socially acceptable time for childbearing. A recent study in rural Rajshahi of 8angladesh r巳ported that the averag巳 ages at marriage and at first birth were found to be 15.18 and 16.16 years old respectively (Akter et al., 2007). Very few studies have b巳en conducted in the vulnerable
area such as slum ar巳as. 1n these areas people are deprived of maximally using govemmental and non-govemmental facilities. Compared with other social status , their lives are below poverty line. They have no opportunities or few巳r choices to be educated and trained , to get better services , or even to get adequate medical h e1p. Their housing conditions are terrible , and they are usually confronted with starvation (CUS , 2006). Therefore , the pres巳nt study is devoted to examining the differentials as well as direct and indirect factors of the female age at first marriage in slum areas of Bangladesh. Aryal (2005) and Rahman (2005) highlighted that the age at marriage was related to socio-economic factors such as respondent's educationallevel , fathers' occupations , residence , caste , religion, socioeconomic status , land ownership and age at m巳narche Mass media are one of the measures that can reduc巳 the early marriage rate in Bangladesh (I slam and Ahmed , 1998; Roy, 2008). Mass media, such as TV, Radio , social campaign , newspaper, radio , etc. , play an important role in reducing fertility and mortality and also raising age at marriage. Television is the main mass media in Bangladesh. Many times , it telecasts family planning program as well as reproductiv巳 right and health program so that the life styles of audienc巳 s who watch these programs regularly are tremendously influenced.
2
Data and methods
For this study, the primary data were collected from areas of R句 shahi City, 8angladesh. A total of 1104 ever married women were interviewed in this surv巳y sample. The data collection was carried out from June to August 2007 , under the collaboration of Population Science Department, University of Rajshahi , 8angladesh. The primary database provides information on various possible background as well as age at marriage , coupl巳 s' 巳 ducational th巳 slum
Corresponding author: Shamima Akter (
[email protected])
Chinese Jourr时 of Population, Resources aod Environr阳lt 2009 Vo l. 7 No.3
79
level and occupations , and monthly
income ，巳tc.
The mul-
Table 2 MCA for estimating the mean age at marriage by selected socioeconomic variables , Bangladesh
tiple c1 assification analysis (MCA) has b 巳 en applied for
Predictor mean
the computation of mean ages at marriage for women with different characters. The path analysis was used to study the direct and indirect effects of various socioeconomic variables , and to identi市 the. magnitude and signifìcance of
Explanatory variable
N-1104
Unadjusted
Adjusted
Respondent's education Illiterate
579
16 .5 5
16 .5 3
1-5 ye缸E
431
16.50
16 .5 1
Sìx and rnore years
94
17.14
17.19
Agriculture
558
16.61
16.4 1
Se凹 tce
123
17.37
17 .3 7
marriage (N asim et al., 2002; Alam et 址， 2004). Age at first
Business
264
16.56
16.57
marriage is taken to depend either directly or indirectly on
Others
159
16.53
16 .5 3
Sing1e
856
16.63
16.61
Cornbined
248
16 .3 8
16.53
Muslirn
994
16.55
16.55
Non-Muslirn
110
16 .5 7
16 .5 7
