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Rural-to-Urban Migration and Sexual Debut in Thailand

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Demography

Abstract

Migration from one’s parents’ home and sexual debut are common features of the transition to adulthood. Although many studies have described both of these features independently, few have examined the relationship between migration and sexual debut in a systematic manner. In this study, we explore this link for young adults in Thailand. With relatively high rates of internal migration, rapid modernization, a moderate HIV epidemic, and a declining average age of sexual debut, Thailand presents an instructive environment in which to examine migration and sexual debut. We use two waves of a longitudinal data set (2005 and 2007) that includes a subsample of young adults who migrated to urban areas during that period. We identify characteristics and behaviors associated with sexual debut and examine the role of migration on debut. Our approach reduces several common sources of bias that hamper existing work on both migration and sexual debut: (1) the longitudinal nature of the data enables us to examine the effects of characteristics that predate both behaviors of interest; (2) the survey on sexual behavior employed a technique that reduces response bias; and (3) we examine differences in debut by marital status. We find that migrants have a higher likelihood of sexual debut than nonmigrants.

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Notes

  1. One approach to overcoming this limitation in cross-sectional data employs the use of life-history calendars to more accurately reconstruct the past, as described in Luke et al. (2011).

  2. Respondents interviewed in 2005 but not reinterviewed in 2007 include 402 migrants to the urban destinations who were not found in the migration follow-up (Table 5 in the appendix). See Nauman (2013) for an analysis of differences in background characteristics between migrants who were found and those who were not found (aged 18+).

  3. We conduct analysis to examine whether those who were interviewed in 2005 but not 2007 are systematically different from those who were interviewed in both waves (see appendix). To do so, we first compare background characteristics between respondents who were interviewed in both waves and those who were lost to follow-up; we then run discrete-time event-history models in which the dependent variable is sexual debut in 2005, and the independent variable is whether the respondent was interviewed in 2005 but not in 2007 (to measure attrition bias in sexual debut). Although there are several significant differences in the bivariate analysis (Table 6), results for this analysis of attrition bias show no significant differences in sexual debut (at the p < .10 level) between those who were interviewed in 2005 but not 2007 and respondents who were interviewed in both waves (Table 7).

  4. Categories ranged from the most informal (e.g., casual acquaintance or sex worker) to the most formal (e.g., one’s spouse or betrothed).

  5. Some of these “nonmigrants” may have moved prior to 2005, or between 2005 and 2007 before returning to Kanchanaburi by 2007. We control for the former in our models. The latter make up only a small percentage of our sample; controlling for this return migration did not affect our results.

  6. The asset indicator is a principal components analysis measure of 12 household amenities, including air conditioning and a TV, VCR, satellite, stereo, radio, cell phone, telephone, computer, generator, refrigerator, and vehicle.

  7. Because we do not have the exact timing of sexual debut (day and month), we do not know whether sexual debut takes place before or after migration. The goal of our analysis is to determine whether the occurrence of migration during the window of observation is associated with sexual debut during the window, vis-à-vis individuals who did not migrate during the window.

  8. Because we consider debut and marriage to occur at approximately the same time for our respondents who marry and debut during our observation window, a discrete-time event-history analysis of marriage would likely mirror our analysis of debut. For these respondents, debut could take place either before or after marriage. All respondents who marry within the interval also debuted with their spouse within this period (but vary in the exact timing of debut), so there is no censoring in this analysis. We could therefore also use a linear regression with time to debut as the dependent variable, but we instead use the same discrete-time event-history approach for comparability with previous results.

  9. Regression models with dummy variables for each age category 14–31 (with age 14 as the reference category) yielded results that were not substantively different from those presented here (with age as quadratic).

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge funding support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child and Human Development, National Institutes of Health for our Health Impacts of Rural-to-Urban (HIRUM) Study (VanLandingham PI: R01 HD46527), and from the Wellcome Trust; logistic and field support from the Institute for Population and Social Research’s Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System, Mahidol University; and helpful comments from Fernando Riosmena, Narayan Sastry, and the anonymous reviewers.

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Correspondence to Philip Anglewicz.

Appendix

Appendix

Here, we examine potential bias presented by respondents interviewed in 2005 but not in 2007. First, we present a table of reasons for noninterview among the 2,740 respondents not interviewed in 2007. Next, we test bivariate differences in background characteristics (used in the regression models above) between respondents who were reinterviewed and those who were lost to follow-up. Finally, we examine whether individuals who were lost to follow-up are systematically different in sexual debut from reinterviewed respondents.

Table 5 shows the reason for noninterview among respondents who were interviewed in 2005 but not 2007. The most common reason was migration out of the KDSS sample area. Also shown in Table 5 are the 402 migrants who were not found (i.e., migrants who moved to the urban locations listed earlier but were not found in the migration follow-up).

Table 5 Reason for noninterview in 2007 among respondents interviewed in 2005

For an analysis of attrition bias, we examine whether those who were interviewed in 2005 but not 2007 are systematically different from those who were interviewed in both waves. To do so, we first compare background characteristics between respondents who were interviewed in both waves and those who were lost to follow-up (Table 6). Then, we run discrete-time event-history models in which the dependent variable is age at sexual debut in 2005 (Table 7). For these regressions, we include the same independent variables as other models in the main article, with one important exception: a binary measure of whether the respondent was interviewed in 2005 but not in 2007 (an indicator of attrition bias). Thus, if those who were interviewed in 2005 but not 2007 were systematically different in sexual debut from those who were interviewed in 2005 and 2007, this variable would be significant in the models. We run these regressions for both sexes combined and then separately for men and women.

Table 6 Analysis of attrition; bivariate comparison of 2005 background characteristics between respondents who were interviewed in 2005 and 2007 with those who were lost to follow-up
Table 7 Discrete-time event-history regression results for assessment of attrition: 2005 characteristics and behaviors associated with sexual debut for HIRUM men and women: Odds ratios, with robust standard errors in parentheses

Results for this analysis of attrition bias show several significant differences in the bivariate comparison (Table 6). Those who were lost to follow up are more likely to be male, to have no previous migration history, to have less secondary education only, to be unmarried, not to live with a parent, and to consume alcohol; they are also younger.

Despite these bivariate differences, there is no significant difference in sexual debut (at the p < .10 level) between those who were interviewed in 2005 but not 2007 and respondents who were interviewed in both waves (in bold, Table 7), for men or women alone, or pooled by sex.

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Anglewicz, P., VanLandingham, M. & Phuengsamran, D. Rural-to-Urban Migration and Sexual Debut in Thailand. Demography 51, 1955–1976 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-014-0323-8

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