Population Council Research that makes a difference

Population Association of America Annual Meeting
15–17 April 2010

Abstract

"Health and early marriage in rural Malawi"
Monica J. Grant, Erica Soler-Hampejsek, and Barbara S. Mensch

Recognition of the role that health plays in selection into marriage is not new, but it has been largely neglected in research in resource-poor countries. The role that health may play in the transition to first marriage is particularly of interest in Malawi, where recent stagnation in the age at first marriage may reflect the pressures that the HIV epidemic is exerting on young adults. In this paper, we examine whether health serves as a selection factor into early marriage. If men choose younger women as their wives because of their assumed lower likelihood of HIV infection, we hypothesize that observable signals of health should be associated with the transition to first marriage. We examine this relationship using three indicators of health—self-reported health status, an index of recent symptoms, and Body Mass Index (BMI). Preliminary analysis suggests a significant positive association between BMI and the transition to marriage.

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