Rural-Urban Differentials in Family Formation and Dissolution in and Around Debrezeit
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Date
1999-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This study attempts to fill the gap in the knowledge on differences between rural and urban areas
regarding family formation and family dissolution. The analysis is based on primary data collected
from Debrezeit and the surrounding rural areas in April 1999.
The analysis is framed in such a way that rural-urban place of residence is assumed to exert its
influence on the two dependent variables through Its influence on the explanatory variables. The
two dependent variables are family formation and family dissolution, the indicators of which are
age at first marriage and stability of first marriages, respectively.
The methods of analysis used include the univariate, bivariate, and the multivariate techniques. In
addition, A. J. Coale's model nuptiality indices were used to estimate and compare first marriage
frequencies, the speed or tempo of first marriages, and the proportion that ultimately marries in
Debrezeit and the rural areas surrounding it.
The results of analyses reveal that urban girls marry at an average age of 17.71 years while their
rural counterparts marry at an average age of 15.59 years. A look at the trend in age at first
marriage in the last three to four decades shows that mean age at first marriage increased by about
one and a half years among the rural respondents while it did so by about two years among the
urban respondents. Singulate mean age at marriage is found to be positively associated with level
of education both among the rural and the urban respondents.
The indices of Coale's model nuptiality computed for this study indicate that rural females start
and finish marrying for the first time earlier than their urban counterparts.
Consistent with the univariate and the bivariate analyses, the analysis of variance shows that mean
age at first marriage varied significantly by level of education, the way first marriages were
arranged, migration status, and stability of parental unions before first marriages of the
respondents. Similarly, the results of multiple classification analysis show that illiterates, those
who had their first marriages arranged by their families, those who were abducted, other ethnic
groups than the Oromos, rural respondents, those who were not courted before their first
marriages, migrants, those unemployed before their first marriages, and those whose parents were
in marital union married earlier than the grand mean age of marriage.
Results of the logistic regression analysis indicate that place of residence, courtship before first
marriage, husband's education level and age at first marriage, current age, migration statu.ยง, age at
first marriage, and CEB in first marriage were selected from among other explanatory variables by
the backward stepwise method to have significant relationship with stability of first marriages.
It is recommended that governmental and other concerned bodies design methods through which
the variables which are found to significantly influence age at first marriage and stability of those
marriages may be influenced so that ages at first marriages and stability of first marriages will be
brought to desirable levels.
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Keywords
Rural-Urban Differentials