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Self-reported age of marriage variable [message #10895]

Sun, 02 October 2016 03:45

christalUTS
Messages: 2
Registered: September 2016

Member

Hello,

I am working on a project about marriage age in Africa. One of the countries I am analysing is Benin and using all years the standard DHS data sets are available for. The datasets are of the "STATA individual recode data sets".

When I plot the proportion of women who are married/cohabiting before they turn 16 years old (using self-reported age of marriage variable) against their birth year I find a strange pattern in the data. In particular, among women who are very young in a given survey (e.g. age <=20) these proportions are low, but when I use a later survey and look at the women of the same birth year these proportions are twice as large. I have attached the graphs and Stata code used to generate them.

Could you please let me know what could explain this pattern? Is it that very young women tend to under-report their married status, or is it that the very young women who agree to participate in the survey are somehow different (e.g. more emancipated and hence less likely to be married before turning 16 y.o).Or am I just using the data incorrectly? I would very much appreciate your advice.

Attachment: code2.do
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Attachment: Figure.docx
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[Message index]

		Self-reported age of marriage variable By: christalUTS on Sun, 02 October 2016 03:45
		Re: Self-reported age of marriage variable By: Bridgette-DHS on Wed, 05 October 2016 07:29
		Re: Self-reported age of marriage variable By: christalUTS on Thu, 13 October 2016 00:08
		Re: Self-reported age of marriage variable By: Bridgette-DHS on Fri, 14 October 2016 08:02

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