| The effects of growing-season drought on young women’s life course transitions in a sub-Saharan context |
| Authors: |
Liliana Andriano and Julia Behrman |
| Source: |
Journal of Demography, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2020.1819551 |
| Topic(s): |
Environment and natural resources
Environmental health
Fertility
GIS/GPS
Marriage
Spatial analysis
Women's health
|
| Country: |
Africa
Multiple African Countries
|
| Published: |
OCT 2020 |
| Abstract: |
In spite of the vast importance of weather shocks for population processes, limited work has investigated the micro-level processes through which weather shocks influence the transition to adulthood in low-income contexts. This paper provides a conceptual overview and empirical investigation of how weather shocks impact the timing, sequencing, and characteristics of young women’s life course transitions in low-income rural settings. Drawing on the case of Malawi, we combine repeated cross-sections of georeferenced Demographic and Health Survey data with georeferenced climate and crop calendar data to assess how growing-season drought shocks affect young women’s life course transitions. Discrete-time event history analyses indicate that in this context, exposure to growing-season drought in adolescence has an accelerating effect on young women’s transitions into first unions—both marriage and cohabitation—and into first births within unions. |
| Web: |
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00324728.2020.1819551 |