| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
IntroductionPostponement of marriage is a global phenomenon. On average, the mean age at first marriage has increased for both genders by about two years during the first two decades of the 21st century (UN Population Division, 2016). The age at first marriage has climbed sharply in the United States and advanced parts of Europe since the 1960s and in southern Europe and Ireland since the 1970s and 1980s. Its upward trend in the mentioned countries has reached that of the former communist eastern European countries in the 1990s (Jelnov, 2019; Jones, 2007). Several east and southeast Asian countries have experienced this trend since the mid-1980s as well (Leete, 1994). Although marriage has a highly social status and is still very common in Iran, its patterns have changed. Actually, despite various programs and policies that have been implemented to reduce the age of marriage in the last decade, the Singulate Mean Age at Marriage (SMAM) is still increasing. It has risen during the last 4 decades consistently (Torabi and Mesgarzadeh, 2017). The generational patterns of marriage have also changed in a way that younger generations mostly decide to marry at older ages (Bagi 2022). In fact, marriage rates have decreased (Abbasi et al., 2018) and permanent celibacy has increased (Beladi Mousavi, 2017). The reason that people delay their marriage or never get married is a question that demographers and social researchers have sought to answer. This study investigated the reasons for delay in marriage among the recently married couples and its determinants in Iran and tried to answer the following questions: What is the SMAM and ideal age of marriage based on individual characteristics? Is there a difference between the actual and ideal ages of marriage? And what are the most important reasons for delayed marriage and its determinants? Material & MethodsThis study was based on the secondary analysis of quantitative data. For this purpose, the data of National Marriage Survey were analyzed. They were collected from all the provincial capitals except Tehran Province due to the lack of cooperation. The statistical population included all the men and women, who referred to medical laboratories for pre-marriage tests. We chose those people, who were experiencing their first marriage. Therefore, the information of 8349 people was analyzed. Two variables were used to determine the delay in marriage: "age at first marriage" and "ideal age of marriage". The former was created based on the date of marriage and the latter was based on this question: "what age is the ideal age for marriage?" Those people, who got married later than their ideal age, were classified as having a delayed marriage. Discussion of Results & ConclusionThe average age of marriage was 24.5 years and the average ideal age was 21.4 years. They showed that the studied people got married averagely 3.1 years later than what they considered as an ideal age for marriage. The singulate mean ages at marriage for the studied men and women were 23.6 and 27.4 years and their mean ideal ages of marriage were 23 and 26 years, respectively. The SMAM was higher among the Shiites, city dwellers, employed people, illiterate individuals, and Gilak and Mazandarani ethnic groups. Generally, about 40% of the people used to get married later than their ideal ages of marriage. Economic problem was the main reason for the males’ delay in marriage. “Financial problems” (35.9%) and “job problems and the problem of not having a job” (12.6%) were the major reasons mentioned by them. “Not finding the right person”, “studying”, “military service”, and “not having a house” were in the next ranks.Iranian families are based on a male-breadwinner model. Therefore, the key role of economic problem in the men’s delayed marriage was normal. Iran's labor market is inflexible. Youth unemployment is high. Even, it takes averagely about 3 years for a university graduate to find a job. Thus, as Becker (1981) indicates, those whose marriages increase their worries in different socio-economic dimensions tend to delay their marriage.“Not finding the right person” (31%) was the main reason for the women’s delay in marriage. Financial problem was mentioned by only 7.3% of the women. “Studying” was also one of the major causes. Cultural issues were mostly mentioned by the women than the men. For example, the issue of "not being interested in marriage" was further mentioned by the women (3%) than the men (1.7%).Our results showed that about 60% of the women, who said that they had not found the right person, had tertiary education and 36% of them were employed. This can be explained by Becker's theory on the marriage market, in which women experience a success gap or marriage squeeze. Studying at the university and high expectations of this group of women has caused them to face problems in choosing the right person. Higher education can put women in a marriage squeeze because most men tend to marry women with lower levels of education, while the tertiary-educated and employed women always look for men, who are at least on the same levels of education. Also, as McDonald (2008) points out, women change their views on gender equality as their levels of education increase. Marriage will not be a priority for highly educated women and they would rather look for a job in the labour market. Nevertheless, female economic participation has a low rate in Iran, while their unemployment rate is high. Also, there is a sex gap in wages.Unexpectedly, delayed marriage was higher among Baluch, Arab, and Kurdish men compared to the Persian-speaking men. Economic challenges and unemployment were the main reasons for their delays; this was in line with the low levels of economic development in the areas where these ethnicities lived.Delayed marriage caused by economic problems showed that most of the policy measures designed and implemented to affect marriage had failed and needed to be evaluated and reviewed. During 2004-2016, 5 laws, 2 papers, 1 bill, and 3 policy cases had addressed marriage facilitation. However, there were an increasing age of marriage and decreasing number of marriages during this period. It seemed that the main reason for the failure of these policies was that the programs were based on the politicians’ ideals, while policymaking had to be based on research results that showed the realities of the society. |