The effects of growing-season drought on young women’s life course transitions in a sub-Saharan context

Journal article

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.

Authors: Andriano, L; Behrman, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Journal: Population Studies
• Volume: 74
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 331-350
• Publication date: 2020-10-13
• Acceptance date: 2020-07-08
• DOI: 10.1080/00324728.2020.1819551
• EISSN: 1477-4747
• ISSN: 0032-4728
• Language: English
• Keywords: Africa; weather shocks; drought; fertility; childbearing; marriage; FFR; event history analysis