Determinants of Female Age at Marriage in Rural and Semi-Urban Areas of Four Latin American Countries

Abstract

Interview data from approximately 7500 women residing in Mexico Costa Rica Colombia and Peru was used to test the hypothesis that women with higher exposure to urban environments and with higher educational levels tend to have later actual and ideal marriage ages than women with less urban exposure and lower educational levels. The data was previously collected in surveys sponsored by the United Nations Latin American Demographic Center. In the analysis age at marriage was treated as a dependent variable and the independent variables were: 1) urban or rural residence during the early socialization years; 2) current urban or rural residence; and 3) educational level. Descriptive statistical analysis tended to support the hypothesis; however multiple classification analysis showed that only 2-3% of the variation in actual marriage age and only 1-5% of the variation in ideal age at marriage was explained by the independent urbanization and educational variables. Differences in educational level explained a higher proportion of the variance than the urbanization variables. Descriptive analysis showed: 1) women who married later had lower fertility than those who married earlier; 2) mean actual and ideal marriage ages were respectively 17.72 and 20.45 for the Mexican women 18.62 and 20.53 for the Costa Rican women 18.72 and 20.41 for the Colombian women and 19.10 and 20.72 for the Peruvian women; 3) mean actual and ideal marriage ages were later for women with higher education levels and greater urban exposure than for women with lower educational levels and less urban exposure; and 4) the gap between ideal and actual marriage age was greater for less educated and less urbanized women than for the more educated and more urbanized women. Study results were presented in tabular form.