The Possible Effects of Child Survival on Women's Ages at First Union and Childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Improvements in child survival may lead to lower fertility through several pathways. To date, most studies have focused on the physiological and replacement effects, whose impacts are known to be modest in size. Few have examined the potentially more important insurance effect on fertility within union, and almost none have considered the possible relationship between child mortality and marriage, which could also grow out of an insurance strategy. In this study, we use data from 21 sub-Saharan African countries to assess the relationship between child mortality and young women’s ages at first marriage and childbirth. The results show that lower levels of mortality are strongly associated with later marriages and first births, even after controlling for the effects of a large number of other variables. The implications of the findings are discussed and alternative explanations for this relationship are presented