Age at Marriage and the First Birth Interval: The Emerging Change in Sexual Behavior Among Young Couples in China

Abstract

The authors argue that marriage was affected by government policy in China and that the shortened first birth interval was not simply compensating behavior for later marriage. The shorter birth interval is also attributed to broad social changes. First births are identified as births resulting from a conception before marriage and after marriage. Data are obtained among a 10% subsample (34278 ever married women aged 15-57 years and married during 1965-1988) of the 1988 Two per Thousand Survey. By the mid-1980s in China premarital conceptions had increased to 5 per 100 pregnancies from about 1 per 100 pregnancies in the 1950s. Timing shifted closer to the marriage date. Since the 1950s marriage to first birth interval declined by about 1.5 years. During the 1970s age at first marriage increased. The probability of having a birth increased from <0.05 at the 8th month of marriage to 0.17 at the 10th month for the 1965-69 cohort and to 0.29 for the 1985-88 cohort. Findings from the analysis of the determinants of premarital conception reveal that marriage cohort completely accounted for the incidence of premarital conceptions. The most recent marriage cohort was 3.6 times more likely than the 1965-69 cohort to have premarital conceptions. Urban women were twice as likely as rural women to have premarital conceptions. Women with a primary or higher education were twice as likely as illiterate or semi-literate women to have premarital conceptions. Later marriage age was associated with fewer premarital conceptions. Higher social status was associated with a greater probability of premarital conceptions. Women who married late and women in more recent cohorts and with higher educational attainment had shorter birth intervals. The social changes in China that affected sex behavior included a shift away from arranged marriages a rapid increase in formal education and employment changed norms about sexuality and knowledge of sexuality promoted in family planning programs. The Chinese socialist state was the vehicle for the broad social changes and not simply modernization.