Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia
Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband’s minus w...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165569 |
| _version_ | 1826125558565568512 |
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| author | Dommaraju, Premchand |
| author2 | School of Social Sciences |
| author_facet | School of Social Sciences Dommaraju, Premchand |
| author_sort | Dommaraju, Premchand |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband’s minus wife’s age) is positive in all countries and ranges from 2.7 in Myanmar to 8.4 in Bangladesh. Age homogamous marriages accounted for 5% of all marriages in Bangladesh to close to half of all marriages in Thailand. The proportion of age hypogamous marriages was uniformly low in all the countries except for Myanmar where it reaches close to 10%. Men’s marriage age has a stronger effect in determining the age gap. In general, the age gap for women with lower education was larger than for those with higher education. However, much of this effect was explained by the difference in marriage timing across educational groups. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T06:38:37Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/165569 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T06:38:37Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1655692023-04-02T15:30:48Z Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia Dommaraju, Premchand School of Social Sciences Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women Marriage Age Homogamy Age gap between spouses has important implications for a range of outcomes—from fertility and longevity, to gender relationships, marital quality, and stability. This paper examines the age gap between spouses in 12 countries in South and Southeast Asia. The average age difference (husband’s minus wife’s age) is positive in all countries and ranges from 2.7 in Myanmar to 8.4 in Bangladesh. Age homogamous marriages accounted for 5% of all marriages in Bangladesh to close to half of all marriages in Thailand. The proportion of age hypogamous marriages was uniformly low in all the countries except for Myanmar where it reaches close to 10%. Men’s marriage age has a stronger effect in determining the age gap. In general, the age gap for women with lower education was larger than for those with higher education. However, much of this effect was explained by the difference in marriage timing across educational groups. Ministry of Education (MOE) Submitted/Accepted version This research is supported by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (2018-T1-001-109) 2023-03-31T03:10:02Z 2023-03-31T03:10:02Z 2023 Journal Article Dommaraju, P. (2023). Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia. Journal of Family Issues. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0192513X231155662 0192-513X https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165569 10.1177/0192513X231155662 2-s2.0-85147295676 en 2018-T1-001-109 Journal of Family Issues © 2023 The Author(s). All rights reserved. This paper was published in Journal of Family Issues and is made available with permission of The Author(s). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women Marriage Age Homogamy Dommaraju, Premchand Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia |
| title | Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia |
| title_full | Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia |
| title_fullStr | Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia |
| title_short | Age gap between spouses in South and Southeast Asia |
| title_sort | age gap between spouses in south and southeast asia |
| topic | Social sciences::Sociology::Family, marriage and women Marriage Age Homogamy |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165569 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dommarajupremchand agegapbetweenspousesinsouthandsoutheastasia |