Age at First Marriage and its Impact on Reproductive Behaviour of Women in Uttar Pradesh, India

The present study explores the impact of socio-economic and demographic variables on age at first marriage and its association to reproductive behavior of women. Using the multinomial regression approach, it is observed that place of residence, religion, wealth index, education, and occupation are significant, important and decisive variable for the age at first marriage. Along with, it is also found that the overall fertility declined sharply as age at first marriage rises. Using the method of linear regression, the study shows if the age at first marriage of adolescents is increased by 1 year then the age at first birth is postponed by 0.780 years and the total parity per women at the end of the reproductive period is expected to reduce by 0.288 for each 1-year delayed marriage. With the increase in age at first marriage, the fecundability of women sharply rises, whereas the proportion of temporary sterility decreases