Factors Influencing Age at First Birth of Bangladeshi Women- A Multivariate Approach

摘要

Age at first birth has direct effect on fertility; early initiation of childbearing lengthens the reproductive period and subsequently increases fertility level of a country. Study of age at first birth enable researchers to forecast about subsequent fertility behavior and policy implications, especially in case of developing country like Bangladesh; where third stage of demographic transition begun as a result of continuous assessment. Multivariate techniques have been applied using BDHS-2007 data to obtain significant determinants of age at first birth of Bangladeshi women. Five factors were revealed from factor analysis where consciousness of parents and fecundity factor explain the age at first birth most. Linear discriminant analysis revealed that 70.9% of original grouped cases were correctly classified according to the obtained factors where, sensitivity of discriminant function was 71.9% and the specificity was 65.1%. Findings suggest that; there is a complex structure to the decision-making for first parity along with couple’s awareness about population boost, fecundity, couple’s educational level and, mother’s participation on labor force.