Findings from Recent and Ongoing Youth and Family Studies in Vietnam
Council researchers conducted a large-scale adolescent survey and an in-depth study of four rural communes in Vietnam to explore how patterns of transitions to adulthood, particularly decisions about schooling, marriage, and work, are affected by rapidly changing opportunity structures associated with economic opening or “doi moi.”
Dao girl, 19 years old, at her wedding in Na Khoan village, Phuong Giao commune. The bride looks nervous not only because many people are watching her being dressed by her older relatives, but also because she is away from her home commune for the first time in her life. Photo: Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan/Population Council
Vietnam has reached an historic peak in the size of its youth population. Young people ages 10–24 who account for approximately one-third of the country’s 84-million total population are coming of age now. They belong to a larger cohort than all preceding and succeeding cohorts. Over the last decade, Vietnam’s rapid economic growth has provided young people with new opportunities unheard of in their parents' generation. This is, however, not the case for ethnic minority youth. Many of them remain the poorest, least healthy, and least educated of Vietnam's population. Ethnic minorities, who tend to live in remote mountainous areas, account for 15 percent of Vietnam’s total population and, according to a recent estimate, 61 percent of them are poor.
Despite recent efforts by the Government of Vietnam to promote poverty reduction in remote areas, a majority of ethnic minorities have not yet experienced positive change, contrary to majority Vietnamese (i.e., Kinh). In 2007 well over half of minority youth grew up in impoverished households. As these young people enter their working and reproductive years, they face an array of employment, health, and reproductive health challenges.
In 2006–07, Population Council researchers, in collaboration with researchers from Thai Nguyen Medical College, conducted a study to understand transitions to adulthood among young people in poor remote areas of northern Vietnam. This study provides empirically validated findings on the degree of change and the determinants of change in young people’s educational attainment, transition to work, and transition to marriage and parenthood. Further, the study illustrates the consequences of such change for the livelihoods of young people, particularly the implications for their sexual and reproductive health. The study aims to identify areas of intervention that best address the needs of Vietnam’s most marginalized young population.
In this study, researchers combine quantitative and qualitative analyses drawing on rich data from community appraisals, village censuses, a household survey, and in-depth interviews. Sixty young people ages 15–29 were randomly selected from the Kinh, Dao, and Hmong populations for interview. Each young respondent and his or her parents were interviewed twice. The research team processed population censuses of nine study villages and carried out a household sampling survey in 150 households. The strength of the intensive research design is that it permits an investigation of broader institutional and historical contexts of individual and family behavior.
The 2006–07 study was preceded by two other studies: the 2003 and 1999 surveys. In 2003 researchers from the Council and the Institute of Sociology undertook a multi-method study to investigate crucial issues affecting the lives of young Vietnamese people from the majority ethnic group. The study focused on young people ages 15–29 in four periurban and rural communes in the north and south of Vietnam. The experience of young people in communities where new work opportunities are prevalent was contrasted to that of young people in communities where fewer opportunities exist.
In 1999 the Population Council conducted a quantitative and qualitative survey of adolescents and social change in Vietnam in collaboration with the Institute of Sociology in Hanoi. The survey was conducted among 1,500 boys and girls ages 15–22 in six provinces representing a range of communities. An analysis of this survey suggests that the lack of adequate employment opportunities may be more of a threat to adolescent well-being than risky sexual behaviors per se—a situation that effective economic policies can remedy. (Mensch, Clark, Dang 2003 [PDF])
2003 Youth and Family Study: Methodology
During the first round of data collection, 100 households from each of the four communes were randomly selected for household structured questionnaire interviews. The data from this sample provide a demographic and economic profile of the area. Among these 100 households, 30 households were randomly selected for additional qualitative data collection that included time-use interviews, life-history matrixes, in-depth interviews, and focus groups. These multiple sources of data allowed for cross-checking and triangulation.
Time-use interviews were conducted for all available persons ages 5 and above in the 30 selected households within each commune. Researchers collected information about activities during the 24 hours of the previous day. The life-history matrixes were used to gather information about major events concerning education, occupation, living arrangement, marriage, health care and fertility, and migration of all persons ages 15–19 in the 100 households in each commune. The in-depth interviews were conducted with all young people ages 15–19 in the 30 selected households to gather qualitative data covering the same topics as those in the life-history matrix. Lastly, five focus groups were held: one with commune leaders, one with men and one with women ages 15–19 who were not among the 30 selected households in each sample commune, and one with adult men and one with adult women who belonged to the parental generation.
The second round of data collection consisted of a life-history matrix of one adult of the parental generation and of the same sex as the young person who participated in the life-history matrix in the first round in each of the 100 households; and in-depth interviews with one parent of the same sex as the young person who had participated in an in-depth interview in the first round.
The third round included in-depth interviews with permanent migrants and a values survey that focused on the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions about education, occupation, living arrangement, marriage, health care and risk factors, and migration of young people aged 15–30 and their parents of the same sex in the 100 households in each village.
After preliminary analysis of the first round of data collection, the researchers decided on a three-round study design in order to collect additional information or clarifications. To capture differences associated with geographic mobility, additional respondents were interviewed, including permanent migrants in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City who were still considered members of the 120 households previously interviewed.
Les programmes de lutte contre le mariage des enfants : cerner le problème (PDF)
Amin,Sajeda
Promouvoir la santé, la sécurité et la productivité transitions vers l'âge adulte Bulletin (N 14)
Publication date: 2011
Programs to address child marriage: Framing the problem (PDF)
Amin,Sajeda
Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief (no. 14)
Publication date: 2011
Ethnic differentials in parental health seeking for childhood illness in Vietnam (abstract)
Teerawichitchainan,Bussarawan; Phillips,James F.
Social Science and Medicine 66(5): 1118-1130
Publication date: 2008
The role of temporary migration in rural household economic strategy in a transitional period for the economy of Vietnam (abstract)
Pham Nguyen Bang; Hill,Peter S.
Asian Population Studies 4(1): 57-75
Publication date: 2008
Changing transitions to adulthood in Vietnam's remote northern uplands: A focus on ethnic minority youth and their families (PDF) (HTML)
Teerawichitchainan,Bussarawan; Hac Van Vinh; Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan
Publication date: 2007
Changing transitions to adulthood in Vietnam's remote northern uplands: A focus on ethnic minority youth and their families [Vietnamese] (PDF) (HTML)
Teerawichitchainan,Bussarawan; Hac Van Vinh; Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan
Publication date: 2007
Ethnic differentials in parental health seeking for childhood illness in Vietnam (PDF)
Teerawichitchainan,Bussarawan; Phillips,James F.
Poverty, Gender, and Youth Working Paper (no. 3)
Publication date: 2007
Questionnaires used in the 2006 Youth and Family Study to gather information on young people, households, and the community (PDF) (HTML)
Publication date: 2006
The implications of trade liberalization for working women's marriage: Case studies of Bangladesh, Egypt and Vietnam
Amin,Sajeda; Grown,Caren; Braunstein,Elissa; Malhotra,Anju
from Trading Women's Health & Rights? Trade Liberalization and Reproductive Health in Developing Countries, pp. 97-120
Publication date: 2006
Adolescents in Vietnam: Looking beyond reproductive health (abstract) (PDF)
Mensch,Barbara S.; Clark,Wesley H.; Dang Nguyen Anh
Studies in Family Planning 34(4): 249-262
Publication date: 2003
Premarital sex in Vietnam: Is the current concern with adolescent reproductive health warranted? (PDF)
Mensch,Barbara S.; Clark,Wesley H.; Dang Nguyen Anh
Policy Research Division Working Paper (no. 163)
Publication date: 2002
Project Stats
Location: Vietnam (2006–07)
Program(s):
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Topic(s):
Financial literacy/livelihoods
Schooling
Duration: 1/1999 - 12/2008
Population Council researchers:
Sajeda Amin
Barbara S. Mensch
Non-Council collaborators:
Dang Nguyen Anh (Vietnam Asian-Pacific Economic Center)
Hac Van Vinh (Thai Nguyen Medical College, Thai Nguyen)
Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan (Thai Nguyen Medical College, Thai Nguyen)
Vu Manh Loi (Institute of Sociology, Hanoi)
Vu Tuan Huy (Institute of Sociology, Hanoi)
Donors:
Anonymous
Population Council
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Get Involved
- Make a contribution to the Population Council
- Honor a loved one with a gift in their name
- Sign up to receive e-mail announcements
Connect
