Motherhood status and union formation in Moshi, Tanzania 2002-2003.
Age at first union is increasing throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa at the same time that not all couples are waiting for marriage before their first sexual intercourse. We assessed the effect of a premarital first birth on entrance into a first union in an urban area in East Africa -- Moshi, Tanzania. The data come from the Moshi Infertility Survey of 2002-2003. Women who spent less than a year in single motherhood were significantly more likely than childless women to enter into a first union, although the magnitude of this relationship was weaker for more recent cohorts. Women who had been single mothers for 5 or more years (about two-thirds of women with a premarital birth) were significantly less likely than women without children to enter into a first union.
Hattori
Megan Klein
MK
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Larsen
Ulla
U
D000328:Adult; D003267:Contraception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009035:Mothers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012067:Religion; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013636:Tanzania; D014505:Urban Population