Contextual Influence on Age at Marriage in Uttar Pradesh-India

Abstract

Female age at marriage in Uttar Pradesh is amongst the lowest in India. Previous studies on female age at marriage in an Indian context primarily focused on the individual level factors impacting female age at marriage. Community level factors that influence the female age at marriage in Uttar Pradesh were non-existent. In this study, the impact of community presence of mass media is studied using Hierarchical Linear Models. Thus using the data from NFHS-2, the study explores the within community presence of any forms of print, electronic or local mass media and its impact on female age at marriage in Uttar Pradesh. Total of 7175 currently married individual women were nested in 317 rural communities across Uttar Pradesh. Hierarchal linear modeling using SAS PROC MIXED was used in the study. The intra-class correlation of 0.13 indicates fair bit of clustering of female age at marriage within communities. Thirteen percent of the differences in female age at marriage are due to between community differences in Uttar Pradesh. Communities’ exposure to any forms of mass media has a positive impact on female age at marriage in Uttar Pradesh.