The main objective of the current study is to examine the existing situation of female early age at first cohabitation in Bangladesh as well as to identify the factors associated behind this issue. An analysis has been performed by using the secondary data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2011. Chi-square test for dependency checking has been performed as bivariate analysis. After performing bivariate analysis, binary logistic regression analysis has been performed. To identify the significant variable, stepwise regression method has also been performed. The result of the study has revealed that women education, household economic status, area of residence, religion and geographical location have significant contribution for adolescent cohabitation. From this study it can be concluded that females who has low education and low socio-economic status are more likely to enter into cohabitation at early adulthood.
Bangladesh is one of the developing and densely populated countries in the world. The population hasn’t declined since the last several decades. During the first national population census (1974) of Bangladesh the population has been doubled [
In this study, it has tried to examine the predictors of early age at cohabitation in Bangladesh. There are several factors that effecting on early age at cohabitation. Thus, a greater attempt has to be made to find out the factors that are influencing early age at cohabitation. More specially, the objectives of the present study are:
・ To observe the running situation in female age at first cohabitation in Bangladesh;
・ To investigate the causes of early age at cohabitation in Bangladesh;
・ To provide better suggestions and take necessary steps to solve the problem.
The current study based on the data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 2011. The survey was designed to produce representative estimates for most of the indicators for the country as a whole, for the urban and the rural areas separately, and for each of the seven divisions. The 2011 BDHS is a nationally representative of a total of 17,964 selected households, 17,511 were found to be occupied. Interviews were successfully completed in 17,141 households. A total of 18,222 ever married women age 12 - 49 were identified in these households, and 17,842 were interviewed [
Age at first cohabitation is used as the dependent variable, which is recorded in single years. In the present study the dependent variable is made dichotomous by dividing it into two categories: the girls who have cohabitated before reaching age 18 were considered as early cohabited and the girls, who have cohabited after age 18, were considered as late cohabited. Eighteen years was selected as the cut-off point for defining the state of marriage as this was the legal female age at marriage in Bangladesh. For analytical purposes, females who had cohabited early were considered as the “successes” and coded as 1. On the other hand, late cohabited females were considered as “failures” and were coded as 0.
Therefore binary logistic regression model has used.
Yi = 1, if the ith female in sample was cohabited early and Yi = 0, if the ith female in sample was not cohabited early.
Consequently,
Variables, which showed significant effect association with age at first cohabitation in chi-square tests of bivariate analysis, were selected as explanatory variables. Respondents characteristics selected include their region, highest level of educational attainment, religion, area of residence and media (television, radio and reading newspaper). Besides this, partner’s educational level and economic status are also considered as explanatory variables.
For analytical purposes, some predictors have been recoded of the original data. Economic status has coded three categories (poor, middle and rich). Respondents and partner’s educational attainment have coded four categories (No education, primary, secondary and higher). Media that are combination of three variables (having radio, television and reading newspaper) have merged two categories. If any one of them is present then it codes 1 (Yes) otherwise 0 (No).
The main objective of the current study is to find out the possible predictors of early female age at cohabitation in Bangladesh. The study of cohabitation and related issues has not attracted much attention in past in Bangladesh, as a result, this area is neglected in the various data sources. For example, educational level of fathers and mothers has a great significant effect on early marriage. Unfortunately, no such information is available of the current data.
In the present study both bivariate and multivariate techniques have been applied. Frequency tables, Cross tabulation and Chi-Square tests have been used in the study to examine the determinant of early female age at cohabitation. Logistic regression models are fitted to show the effect of the explanatory variables on early marriage. In the study of [
Let,
Yi = 1, if ith individual is success and
Yi = 0, if ith individual is a failure, for
In the linear logistic regression model the dependency of probability of success on independent variables is assumed to be
and the probability of failure is
The logit transformation of the logistic regression model is. The transformation is defined in terms of
The logit g(xi) is linear in its parameter, continuous and range from −∞ to +∞, depending on the range of X [
Stepwise regression method is also applied to select the significant variables:
1) Forward stepwise method;
2) Backward stepwise method.
The procedure begins with the assumption that there are no regressors in the model other than intercept. At first fit a regression equation by taking a single variable. If it is significant, the model take it; otherwise drop the variable and again fit the regression equation with another single variable in the same manner. The procedures terminates when the last candidate regressor is added to the model.
The general process of this method is fitting a regression equation including all the candidate variables of interest and then removes them one by one. Then drop a single variable by using F statistics and again fit a model. By repeating this process again and again at last the model contains a number of independent variables [
This section provides frequencies of female early age at cohabitation, percentages of early marriage among various categories of the predictors, bivariate analysis result, logistic regression output and stepwise regression results.
From the frequency table it is found that 77.7 percent girls of Bangladesh are cohabited before the age of 18 and only 22.3 percent girls are cohabited at or after age 18. The results of the bivariate analysis for the dependent variable age at first cohabitation by their explanatory variables among different categories are reported in
From the bivariate analysis it is found that all of the predictor variables come out significant. So these variables can be used for fitting the logistic regression model. Among the division it is observed that early cohabitation has highest proportion in Rangpur division, i.e. among 2469 individual’s 85.4 percent of them cohabited before age 18. The next higher early cohabitated proportion is found in Khulna division and the successive decreasing order of proportions of cohabitation before age 18 is Rajshahi, Barisal, Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet respectively. This regional differentiation may be occurred due to industrialization, urbanization and education. From the results it is revealed that respondent’s education has a strong significant impact on age at first cohabitation. The respondents who have no formal education cohabited early. The result shows that higher educated respondents have tendency to cohabit later than that of primary and secondary educated respondents. From the data it is found that among 1465 higher educated female 70.6 percent of them cohabited after age 18 whereas among 4639 illiterate respondent’s 87.3 percent of them cohabited before age 18. It is also observed that the respondents who live in rural area have tendency to cohabit early than the respondents who live in urban area.
Though husband’s educational attainment is not as strong as women’s educational attainment but has significant association on respondent’s age at first cohabitation. It is observed that the respondent’s whose husbands are illiterate more cohabited before age 18 than the respondents whose husbands have primary, secondary or higher level of educational attainment. Because educated husbands are likely to cohabit educated females and most of the educated female are aware about their cohabitation age. Access of media has also a significant impact on age at first cohabitation. The proportion of later married is higher among the individual’s who have access media than the individual’s who have no access of media. From the data it is also found that the respondents who come from rich family cohabit later age as compare to other family status. The rich family’s respondent get all the benefit from society like as education, access to mass media and other facilities which directly related to age at first cohabitation.
Category | Frequency | Percent |
---|---|---|
Late married (less or equal 18) | 3983 | 22.3 |
Early married (below 18) | 13,859 | 77.7 |
Total | 17,842 | 100.0 |
Categories of the variables | Age at first cohabitation | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Late married (% of total) | Early married (% of total) | Chi-Square Test value | Significance Level | |
Region Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet | 19.0 27.2 23.2 17.7 18.3 14.6 37.7 | 81.0 72.8 76.8 82.3 81.7 85.4 62.3 | 482.949 | 0.000 |
Respondent’s education No education Primary Secondary Higher | 12.7 14.5 24.8 70.6 | 87.3 85.5 75.2 29.4 | 2426.292 | 0.000 |
Husband’s education No education Primary Secondary Higher | 12.4 16.2 24.3 49.4 | 87.6 83.8 75.7 50.6 | 1523.671 | 0.000 |
Economic status Poor Middle Rich | 14.0 17.1 31.3 | 86.0 82.9 68.7 | 680.717 | 0.000 |
Residence Urban Rural | 28.7 18.9 | 71.3 81.1 | 221.156 | 0.000 |
Religion Muslim Non Muslim | 20.9 34.0 | 79.1 66.0 | 176.830 | 0.000 |
Media (radio, television, reading newspaper) No Yes | 16.2 28.2 | 83.8 71.8 | 370.798 | 0.000 |
The results of
Categories of the variables | Estimated value | Sig. level | Odds ratio |
---|---|---|---|
Region Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhets (reference) | 1.289 0.683 0.962 1.390 1.227 1.518 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 3.630 1.980 2.616 4.014 3.411 4.561 |
Respondent’s Education No education Primary Secondary Higher (reference) | 2.380 2.282 1.776 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 10.800 9.801 5.906 |
Husband’s Education No education Primary Secondary Higher (reference) | 0.704 0.584 0.356 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 2.021 1.794 1.428 |
Residence Urban Rural (referece) | 0.091 | 0.047 | 1.095 |
Religion Muslims Non Muslims (reference) | 0.648 | 0.000 | 1.911 |
Economic status Poor Middle Rich (reference) | 0.198 0.234 | 0.000 0.003 0.000 | 1.219 1.262 |
Media (radio, television or reading newspaper) No Yes (reference) | −0.108 | 0.043 | 0.898 |
In forward stepwise method it removes the variables residence and media although in backward stepwise method it takes all of the variables and the results are same in the original logistic regression model.
The study examines the factors of age at first cohabitation in Bangladesh among female adolescents by using the national representative data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2011. Both bivariate and logistic regression analyses have been performed to identify the important factors of age at first cohabitation.
Variables and their categories | Forward stepwise method | Backward stepwise method | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Estimated value | Sig. | Odds ratio | Estimated value | Sig. | Odds ratio | |
Region Barisal Chittagong Dhaka Khulna Rajshahi Rangpur Sylhet (reference) | 1.283 0.680 0.952 1.388 1.229 1.516 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 3.608 1.974 2.590 4.007 3.417 4.554 | 1.289 0.683 0.962 1.390 1.227 1.518 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 3.630 1.980 2.616 4.014 3.411 4.561 |
Respondent’s Education | 0.000 | 0.000 | ||||
No education Primary Secondary Higher (reference) | 2.365 2.271 1.775 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 10.645 9.685 5.901 | 2.380 2.282 1.776 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 10.800 9.801 5.906 |
Husband’s Education No education Primary Secondary Higher (reference) | 0.699 0.584 0.358 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 2.011 1.793 1.430 | 0.704 0.584 0.356 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 2.021 1.794 1.428 |
Religion Muslims Non Muslims (reference) | 0.641 | 0.000 | 1.898 | 0.648 | 0.000 | 1.911 |
Economic status Poor Middle Rich (reference) | 0.168 0.233 | 0.000 0.000 0.000 | 1.183 1.263 | 0.198 0.234 | 0.000 0.003 0.004 | 1.219 1.263 |
Residence Rural Urban (reference) | 0.091 | 0.047 | 1.095 | |||
Media (radio, television or reading newspaper) No Yes (reference) | −0.108 | 00.043 | 0.898 |
in the society should play important role in removing early age at marriage. Finally public awareness is necessary to free the society from the curse of early age at cohabitation.
Md. YasinAli Parh,SharminAktar Sumy,Md. SazzadHossain, (2015) Determine the Factors of Female Early Age at First Cohabitation: A Case Study of Bangladesh. Open Journal of Statistics,05,494-501. doi: 10.4236/ojs.2015.56051