Volume 28 - Article 3 | Pages 63-76
Disentangling how educational expansion did not increase women's age at union formation in Latin America from 1970 to 2000
| Date received: | 05 Jul 2012 |
| Date published: | 09 Jan 2013 |
| Word count: | 2509 |
| Keywords: | age at union formation, cohabitation, educational expansion, Latin America, marriage |
| DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2013.28.3 |
Abstract
Background: One of the most salient features of Latin American marriages over the last few decades is the stable timing of their union formation, despite educational expansion, the postponement of and retreat from marriage, and the increase in non-marital cohabitation.
Objective: We examine why educational expansion did not influence the aggregated indicators of women's timing of union formation.
Methods: We used recently harmonised international census microdata for eight Latin American countries from the 1970s to the 2000s.
Results: The results from a logistic regression analysis show that this apparent stability was produced by contrasting shifts that occurred in various educational groups. In most countries the postponement effect that was expected from educational expansion was offset by earlier union formation (mostly through non-marital cohabitation) among the least educated (and formally largest) groups, whereas highly educated women showed no change.
Author's Affiliation
Albert Esteve - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Luis Ángel López-Ruiz - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
Jeroen Spijker - University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
»
Mortality in Catalonia in the context of the third, fourth and future phases of the epidemiological transition theory
Volume 20 - Article 8
»
Changes in educational assortative mating in contemporary Spain
Volume 14 - Article 17
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
»
Age, relationship status, and the planning status of births
Volume 23 - Article 13 | Keywords: cohabitation, marriage
»
"Living Apart Together" relationships in the United States
Volume 21 - Article 7 | Keywords: cohabitation, marriage
»
Dispensing with marriage: Marital and partnership trends in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa 2000-2006
Volume 20 - Article 13 | Keywords: cohabitation, marriage
»
Active-duty military service, cohabiting unions, and the transition to marriage
Volume 20 - Article 10 | Keywords: cohabitation, marriage
»
Women’s changing socioeconomic position and union formation in Spain and Portugal
Volume 19 - Article 41 | Keywords: cohabitation, marriage
Articles
Citations
Cited References: 21
»View the references of this article
Download to Citation Manager
Similar Articles
PubMed
»Articles by Luis Ángel López-Ruiz
Google Scholar
»Articles by Luis Ángel López-Ruiz