Marriage and marriage dissolution in a rural area of Bangladesh

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to study the age and sex patterns and differentials of marriage formation and marriage dissolution in rural Bangladesh, using a unique set of marital status registration data from the Demographic Surveillance System (DSS) of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) for the years 1975-1979. This study is the first of its kind in Bangladesh to use marital status registration data. In rural Bangladesh marriage is universal and early, especially for females. It appears from this study that female age at first marriage has been increasing somewhat during the past 5 years but for males age at marriage remains almost constant. A pronounced seasonality of marriages prevails in the rural areas of Bangladesh. As in other societies, education has a substantial effect on age at marriage of both males and females. Groom's occupation has only a slight effect on age at marriage. Divorce in rural Bangladesh is frequentand largely occurs early in marriage. Age difference between groom and bride at marriage has a strong impact on the incidence of widowhood. It also has a marked effect on divorce. Education, husband's occupation and religion have a differential influence on the stability of marriage and on remarriage after divorce or widowhood.