Burcu SAVAŞ : Differentials in Adolescent Marriage and Fertility in Turkey: an Analysis of Women who Experienced adolescent Marriage and/or Adolescent Fertility.( Master Thesis, Ankara, Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies, 2001)
Although the age at first marriage tends to increase in Turkey, it still corresponds in the adolescent period. As age at first marriage determines largely the onset of sexual activity and is closely linked to age at first birth, it is one of the important factors affecting lifetime fertility by extending the period of fertility with the phenomenon of early childbearing. It is also known that fertility among this age group affects maternal and child health negatively.
Adolescent sexual and reproductive behaviour has been evoking increasing interest in the scientific community and policy interest in this arena has begun to expand as well. Especially following the ICPD held in Cairo, in 1994, most countries now acknowledge the importance of the subject matter and have made significant attempts.
With these motivations behind, this study is devoted mainly to explore the probable determinants of adolescent marriage and fertility phenomena in Turkey and to provide an insight for the explanation of those behaviours.
In the framework of the social, cultural and economic transformations having been experienced, firstly, the effects of those transformations shaping modern-day adolescence are mentioned. With respect to these, the levels and trends in adolescent fertility are presented on a global and country-specific basis.
The rest of the study is centred around two main themes: to explore the probable determinants of adolescent marriage and fertility and to discuss whether there occurred a difference across generations regarding the prevalence of those behaviours in Turkey. The analyses for the first theme include women between ages 25-49 that are ever-married and have given birth. For the second theme, women between ages 25-29 and 45-49 - representing the young and old generations, respectively- are used in the analyses with aforementioned characteristics.
The data source used for the analyses is the most recent demographic health survey conducted in Turkey, which is the 1998 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey. Twofold statistical analyses are used in this study as; descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses. In the descriptive part, variables that may influence the phenomena of adolescent marriage and fertility are analysed. Multivariate part, in which logistic regression technique is employed, is devoted to assess the impact of variables on adolescent marriage and fertility, and see the extent they contribute in predicting those behaviours in question.
According to the results of descriptive and multivariate analyses, age, education, social security status, mother tongue, type of marriage, bridemoney, arrangement of marriage, consanguinity, type of place of residence and region are important predictors of adolescent marriage and fertility. Besides, there is a generational difference regarding the prevalence of adolescent marriage and fertility. With a smaller magnitude of the change (decline) in the latter compared with the former, prevalence of adolescent marriage and fertility are observed to be higher among the older generation than among their younger counterparts.
The findings of the study confirm the significant role of education on adolescent marriage and fertility as the literature has suggested. Higher practice of adolescent marriage and fertility in older age groups indicates that young age groups are getting married much more later when compared to their elder counterparts. Adolescent marriage and fertility are observed to be more prevalent in rural than in urban areas, and the likelihood of getting married and giving first birth in adolescent period are the highest among the women living in the East. In addition, a close association is observed between non-traditional behaviour and marriage and fertility outside the adolescent period. In other words, adolescent marriage and fertility are less common among the women who have only civil marriage, who did not marry with bridemoney, who arranged their marriages themselves as a couple and who do not have any consanguinity with their husbands.