Understanding teenage fertility, cohabitation, and marriage : the case of Peru

• Autores: Favara, Marta, Lavado, Pablo, Sánchez, Alan
• Formato: informe técnico
• Fecha de Publicación: 2016
• Institución: Grupo de Analisis para el Desarrollo
• Repositorio: GRADE-Institucional
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.grade.org.pe:20.500.12820/280
• Enlace del recurso: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12820/280
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: Género; Niños; Adolescentes; Fecundidad; Matrimonio; Perú; Fertility; Adolescents; Marriage; https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.02.01; https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#5.04.05

In this study, we used data from the Young Lives study, which investigates teenage childbearing, marriage, and cohabitation by tracking a cohort of individuals from the ages of 8 to 19 years. While the present analysis does not intend to establish causality, the longitudinal nature of the data allows us to identify the combination of early circumstances and life changes that induce a higher likelihood of these events. The analysis addresses bias due both to reverse causality and to community characteristics that are usually unobserved and fixed over time, a strategy that is quite unique in studies of developing countries. About 1 out of 5 females (and 1 out of 20 males) in our sample had at least one child by the age of 19, and 80 percent of them were married or cohabiting. Early marriage/cohabitation is indeed intrinsically related to early pregnancy and largely predicted by the same factors. For females specifically, girls from poor households with an absent parent for a prolonged period have a higher risk of early childbearing. Similarly, girls whose self-efficacy and educational aspirations decrease over time are more at risk of becoming a mother during adolescence. Conversely, school attendance and better school performance predict a lower risk of early pregnancy; our analysis suggests that this is largely because it postpones the first sexual relationship.