Description
- Abstract:
- This paper uses data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to examine the prevalence, recent trends, and correlates at the individual-level of reporting one’s marital status as “living together” versus “married” in 21 sub-Saharan African countries. Up until now, demographic studies on unions in the region have not distinguished between cohabitation and marriage. This is attributed to the view that marriage in Africa is a process. I argue for a reevaluation of this generalized manner in which marriage in the entire sub-Saharan Africa continues to be conceived. By looking at cohabitation separately from marriage, I find significant heterogeneity in the region. In some countries around a half of all unions are self-reported as cohabitation while in others, virtually no unions are comprised by “living together”. There is also notable variation in recent trends; cohabitation in most countries in the sample is on the rise, in some countries its levels are stable while in others still, it has declined. I also find that in a majority of countries, particularly those where cohabitation is prevalent, women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have higher odds of cohabiting while in a few countries, where cohabitation is rarer, there is some evidence of a more “modern” cohabitation that is practiced by elites. To explain the various levels and trends in cohabitation among the countries, I hypothesize that cohabitation in some contexts could be a result of prolonged periods of conflict. Also, a country’s level of cohabitation appears to be inversely associated with the median age of union entry. These results call for more nuanced scholarship on union formation in sub-Saharan Africa that is sensitive to diversity within the region and responsive to the changes that are underway in the composition of unions by these union types.
- Notes:
- Thesis (A. M.)--Brown University, 2019
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Citation
Mutwafy, Salma,
"Beneath African Marriage is a Process: Prevalence, Trends, and Correlates of Cohabitation in 21 sub-Saharan African Countries"
(2019).
Sociology Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.26300/9ryg-fp55
