Wives’ and Husbands’ Nonfamily Experiences and First-Birth Timing

This paper investigates the impact of wives’, husbands’, and couples’ experiences on first-birth timing in an arranged marriage society undergoing dramatic social change. Though previous research has emphasized that the transition away from arranged marriage may speed first births via mechanisms such as increased coital frequency, the nonfamily experiences closely associated with lower likelihoods of arranged marriage may delay first births through other mechanisms. Using replicated measures of nonfamily and marital experiences from both husbands and wives, the analyses presented here investigate consequences of nonfamily and marital experiences. Results reveal that role incompatibility has stronger consequences for wives than for husbands, but resource accumulation speeds first-birth timing. Additionally, results show that husbands’ experiences associated with the spread of new ideas and independence have stronger consequences on first-birth timing than those of wives’.