Marriage Age, Fertility Behavior, and Women’s Empowerment in Nigeria

Bola Lukman Solanke

doi:10.1177/2158244015617989

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between age at first marriage and women’s fertility behavior and empowerment. Data were extracted from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. The Poisson regression and multinomial logistic regression were applied using Stata version 12. Results show that the incident rate of children ever born for women aged 15 to 19 years is less than the incident rate of children ever born for women aged 14 years or less (incident rate ratios = 0.8177, p < .01), and that the relative risk of being in high empowerment category instead of moderate category will increase by a factor of 2.0988 for those aged 15 to 19 years at first marriage compared with those aged 14 years or less. Age at first marriage is significantly related to women’s fertility behavior and empowerment.

Highlights

Marriage age which refers to age at first marriage (Dommaraju, 2008) is an important proximate determinant of fertility (Bongaarts, 1978) and has been linked with demographic change in many parts of Europe and North America where fertility has stabilized at low levels, but has been identified as one of the causes of high fertility level in developing countries of Africa and Asia where the practice of early marriage remain widespread (Clifton & Frost, 2011; Garenne, 2004; Guilbert, 2013; Haloi, 2014; Head, Zweimueller, Marchena, & Hoel, 2014; Kyari & Ayodele, 2014)
The specific objectives of the study are to describe the patterns of age at first marriage, fertility behavior, and women empowerment by the geo-political zones in Nigeria; and examine the relationship between age at first marriage and fertility behavior
The data for this study were extracted from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS)

Summary

Introduction

Marriage age which refers to age at first marriage (Dommaraju, 2008) is an important proximate determinant of fertility (Bongaarts, 1978) and has been linked with demographic change in many parts of Europe and North America where fertility has stabilized at low levels, but has been identified as one of the causes of high fertility level in developing countries of Africa and Asia where the practice of early marriage remain widespread (Clifton & Frost, 2011; Garenne, 2004; Guilbert, 2013; Haloi, 2014; Head, Zweimueller, Marchena, & Hoel, 2014; Kyari & Ayodele, 2014). Though childbearing outside marital unions is prevalent worldwide, the greatest proportions of childbearing occur within marital unions (Acharya, 2010) The recognition of this fact has often been the basis for devising initiatives to encourage rise in age at first marriage as one of the means of redressing high fertility in many developing countries (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). Evidence abounds that populations with higher age at first marriage have on the average low fertility level (Dommaraju, 2008; Sathar & Kiani, 1998) This is made possible by higher ability to exercise more control over reproductive decisions including decisions about childbearing, improved educational attainment, and enhanced economic capacities of populations that delay first marriage (Population Reference Bureau [PRB], 2007).

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