Educational Pairings and Marriage Behavior in the Turkish Context

Taylan Acar , Goethe University

Education plays a fundamental role in structuring individuals’ life courses; including decisions to bear children and to marry. Using women samples from 2008 and 2013 Turkish Demographic and Health Survey (TDHS), this paper examines demographic behaviors in relation to the educational characteristics of couples. It compares age at first marriage among couples with varying educational pairings. The findings unsurprisingly reveal that the university graduate women marry much later than those with lower levels of education. More importantly findings reveal that college education of husband postpones age of marriage only for college-educated women, not for other educational groups. In addition, college educated couples marry the latest compared to other groups including the ones, in which women are highly educated. The results support the idea that couples with higher education levels and potentially with similar attitudes about gender egalitarianism, reveal distinct demographic behaviors from the rest of the society.

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 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course