Polygyny and the Number of Children Ever Born in Afghanistan: Evidence from Afghanistan DHS 2015

Mohammad Fazel Akbary, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Quanbao Jiang, Institute for Population and development Studies, Xi'an Jiaotong University
Dordana Rasa, Bamyan University

Background: Polygynous marriage is practiced in Afghanistan, yet there is no research on the association between polygyny and the number of children ever born (CEB) in the context of Afghanistan. This study aimed to examine the association between polygyny and the number of CEBs in Afghanistan. Methods: A Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) regression model and marginal effect analysis, were applied to the 2015 Afghanistan Demographic and Health Survey (AFDHS) with a sample (N=28,898 women aged 15-49). CEB measured the number of children that a woman gave birth to; polygyny was measured by polygyny and monogamy. All analyses were conducted by using STATA V.18.1. Results: About 7% of the sample were polygynous married, and polygynous marriage had a 5.2% to 10.2% lower likelihood of CEB than monogamous unions. The results show that factors such as age at first marriage, rank among wives, place of residence, and education level significantly influence the number of CEBs. Conclusion: The study concludes by suggesting that increasing access to family planning, promoting women's education, delayed marriage age could help balance the differences in CEB between polygyny and monogamy in Afghanistan.

Keywords: Fertility, Family Planning and Contraception

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