Pathways and Timing of Marriage, Childbearing and Sexual Behavior: The Case of Mexico

Jorge Armando Valencia Rodríguez, El Colegio de México
Fatima Juarez, El Colegio de México

Mexico is no exception on the important transformations of the last century, on the increasing dissociation between sex and marriage and childbearing greatly attributed to the growing secularization. This has been motivated by the many developmental, structural, and demographic changes experienced in the country: an increase in women’s education, low fertility, high contraceptive prevalence and an increasing proportion of sexual intercourse outside marriage, among others. In contrast, marriage trends have remained constant. An important question which we will investigate in this paper is “To what extent and how does the timing of marriage as well as the terms of marriage affect patterns of sexual behavior before marriage, and childbearing”. The aim is explore the dissociation of sexual behavior and marriage, and to develop a typology of transitions that characterizes the different pathways follow by women in Mexico. Data to be used is the National Survey of Demographic Dynamics 2006.