Remarriage timing and its associated factors among women in rural Malawi

ABSTRACT

This study examines the timing of and factors associated with remarriages in rural Malawi after the first marital dissolution. Data come from the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health conducted between 1998 and 2010. Results show that remarriages in rural Malawi are quick and virtually universal, especially among divorced and young women. The median time-to-remarriage after the first marital dissolution is two years for all women combined and divorced women in particular, and only one year for women aged 15–24. Cox proportional hazard models reveal that longer duration of previous union, marital unions that occurred in the latter half of the year 2000 and widowhood are all associated with lower remarriage hazards, whereas Muslim women and women resident in matrilineal societies have higher remarriage hazards than their respective counterparts. Overall, results highlight the importance of previous marriage characteristics above other individual factors in explaining factors associated with remarriages.

KEYWORDS:

• Remarriage
• marital dissolution
• divorce
• Malawi
• sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgments

The Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) Mature Adults Project has been supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, grant numbers R03 HD05 8976, R21 HD050653, R01 HD044228, R01 HD053781, NICHD R01 HD087391), the National Institute on Aging (NIA, grant numbers R21 AG053763 and P30 AG12836), the Boettner Center for Pensions and Retirement Security at the University of Pennsylvania, and the NICHD Population Research Infrastructure Program (grant number R24 HD-044964), all at the University of Pennsylvania.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).