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Early Marriage and Motherhood from an Intergenerational Perspective: The Case of Turkey

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Abstract

This mixed-methods study investigates whether there is an intergenerational transmission of early marriage and childbearing from mothers to daughters in Turkey. Using data from a national survey that explored fertility and family life in urban Turkey (n = 1007), I investigated the impact of the mother’s age at first marriage and childbirth on daughter’s risk of early entry into marriage and motherhood. Also, drawing on a small sample of in-depth interviews (n = 11), I explored various dimensions and underlying mechanisms of the transmission of marriage and fertility behavior from one generation to the next. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings point to a strong link between mothers’ and daughters’ early marriage and fertility behavior in Turkey, confirming the main hypotheses of this study. The main contribution of this study is that it is the first of its kind to explore this issue in a Middle Eastern setting; it provides a new data point and brings a comparative perspective to the existing research.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a grant from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), (SOBAG 3501, Grant No. #113K073). An approval for the study was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee during the Grant application process. I appreciate the staff including the interviewers and supervisors of research firm, Frekans, in Istanbul, for their work in the collection and processing of the data. I thank Hüseyin Kavas for his input into the data analysis. I thank the Turkish respondents who provided the data for this research. Special thanks to Alice Sage and Sue Peters for their editorial help during the preparation of this article. Finally, I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers at Population Research and Policy Review (PRPR) for their comments and critique.

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  1. Istanbul, Turkey

    Serap Kavas

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Appendices

Appendix A: Cox Proportional Hazard Estimate Results for the Risk of an Early Marriage for Women Married Before and After 2002 (Survey Data, 2014)

 

Married before 2002

Married in/after 2002

Exp(B)

Exp(B)

Mother’s early marriage (age ≤ 18)

 No

  

 Yes

1.697 (.013)

1.445 (.207)

Father’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

1.532 (.194)

1.204 (.631)

 High

1.082 (.866)

1.456 (.476)

Mother’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

1.319 (.515)

1.066 (.909)

 High

3.552 (.100)

.593(.640)

Sibling number

  < 3

  

  ≥ 3

3.008 (.035)

.958 (.917)

Respondent’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

.978 (.915)

1.042 (.888)

 High

.180 (.000)

.320 (.002)

Ethnicity

 Turks

  

 Others

1.479 (.015)

1.339 (.267)

Religiosity

 Secular

  

 Religious

.747 (.244)

.885 (.714)

LL

2131.278

770.006

X2

72.079

28.053

N

425

318

  1. P-values are presented in parentheses

Appendix B: Cox Proportional Hazard Estimate Results for the Risk of an Early First Birth for Women Married Before and After 2002 (Survey Data, 2014)

 

Married before 2002

Married in/after 2002

Exp(B)

Exp(B)

Mother’s early birth (age ≤ 18)

 No

  

 Yes

1.849 (.014)

1.203 (.663)

Father’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

2.777 (.019)

.326 (.292)

 High

2.815 (.163)

2.181 (.360)

Mother’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

2.251 (.223)

1.853 (.439)

 High

7.749 (.149)

.000 (.976)

Sibling number

  < 3

  

  ≥ 3

2.625 (.354)

.495 (.251)

Respondent’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

.672 (.263)

1.155 (.796)

 High

.073 (.001)

.317 (.076)

Husband’s education

 Low

  

 Mid-level

.818 (.509)

.218 (.062)

 High

.503 (.072)

.770 (.608)

Ethnicity

 Turks

  

 Others

1.251 (.338)

.744 (.513)

Religiosity

 Secular

  

 Religious

1.646 (.306)

1.242 (.736)

Contraceptive use

 No

  

 Yes

1.511 (.080)

.602 (.218)

LL

955.243

257.416

X2

54.150

16.925

N

361

249

  1. P-values are presented in parentheses

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Kavas, S. Early Marriage and Motherhood from an Intergenerational Perspective: The Case of Turkey. Popul Res Policy Rev 41, 2143–2175 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-022-09718-2

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