The disassociation between the onset of sexual and marital life of the urban women and men in Mexico

Adriana Pérez Amador, National Institute of Statistics Geography and Informatics (INEGI)

In countries that have completed their first demographic transition some transformations in the field of family are occurring; like the increase of sexual activity before entering into marital union and the delay of the onset of marital life. This work allows an empirical approach to the knowledge of one of the main characteristics of second demographic transition: a possible existence of a process of disassociation among sexual and marital life of urban men and women in Mexico. With survival analysis as a tool, I study the interval between first sexual intercourse and first union; along with the effect of some variables in the timing of first union. I consider urban women and men between 20-49 years old, users of the Mexican Institute of Social Welfare (IMSS) and interviewed in the National Survey of Reproductive Health (ENSARE, 1998). This analysis allows corroborating that the intensity of union in diverse intervals after having the first sexual intercourse is smaller for men than for women, but intergenerational differences are not so evident. Therefore, there is a slight change in timing of the first union but not in his intensity. In addition, the beginning of sexual life has important effects on the beginning of marital life, mainly for women. Thus, by every year of increase in the age at the first sexual intercourse for a woman, his relative risk of union is four times greater than woman who has not had it. In the case of men the risk is two times greater. For a man the union risk is smaller if he belongs to an older cohort. For both, having greater levels of schooling represents a smaller risk of union. Finally, to be pregnant, at the time of union, increases the risk of this event for both sexes, but mainly for men.