DE LA EVALUACIÓN AL CONTROL ORGANIZACIONAL

Thirteen per cent of ever-married women have had a birth within the first nine months of first marriage, and this figure increases with age cohort. Because of the cross-sectional nature of the data, younger age cohorts must have been younger still when they got married. Marriage at very young ages reduces the risk of premarital births because of the much shorter exposure time. The smaller proportion of premarital births among the youngest age cohorts is therefore an artefact of their limited exposure to the risk of premarital sexual intercourse and to pregnancy. The standard errors however indicate that the birth function of the 15-19 age cohort at duration nine months is not significantly different at the 95 per cent confidence level from those of any of the other age cohorts cohorts. The absence of any significant differentials between age cohorts in their birth functions at nine months after first marriage indicates that there has been no change in premarital conceptions over the range of experience covered by the survey. Table 4.11 shows that once married almost all women bear a child, which invariably occurs for most of them (about 90 per cent), within four years.

Table 4.11 Birth functions in the first birth interval by age cohort

Sub group B i r t h F u n c t i o n s after duration: and 9 5 % c o n f i d e n c e intervals 9 24 48 60 All (15-49) All .13(.12, .14) • 7 0 ( .68, .72) . 90 ( .89, .91) . 93 ( . 92, . 94 ) (20-49) .13(.11,.15) • 71 ( .69, .73 ) . 90( .89, .91) . 93 ( . 92, .94 ) 15-19 .09( .05, .13 ) . 63 ( .56, .70) . 90( .84, .96) . 96 ( .92,1 . 00) 20-24 . 1 2 ( .10,.14) • 71 ( .68, .74 ) . 91( .89, .93 ) .94 ( .92, .96) 25-29 .14(.11,.170 • 71 ( .68, .74 ) . 90( .88, .92) . 9 3 ( .91, .95) 30-34 .16(.11,.21) • 67 ( .61, .73) . 87 ( .83 , .91) . 8 9 ( .85, .93) 35 + .14 (.04 , .24 ) • 79 ( .67,.81) . 92( .84,1.0) .95( .88,1 .00)

The rapidity with which women begin reproduction is seen from the quantiles in Table 4.10 and from the birth functions in Table 4.11. Twenty- five per cent of all married women across all age cohorts have their first birth between nine and ten months after first marriage. For the next 13-15 months (the spread), a further 50 per cent of them have their first birth, so that between two to two-and-a-half years after marriage, about 75 per cent of women have had their first child, and by four years after first marriage, about 90 per cent of women have become mothers.

Whereas women are differentiated in their ages at first marriage and first birth mainly according to their socioeconomic characteristics such as their educational and employment characteristics, large differentials in the length of the first birth interval occur across both cultural and socioeconomic lines. Indeed, some of the largest differentials are between ethnic groups and regions of residence. For example, the patrilineal Ewe (found along the eastern coast and the Volta region of Ghana) have the lowest median and trimean first birth interval of 13.9 and 14.8 months, while the Mole-Dagbani and other ethnic groups, most of which are in northern Ghana and also patrilineal, have median intervals of 19.2 and 22.1 months respectively, and trimeans of 20.7 and 24.0 months respectively.

In the search for explanations for the observed differentials in median birth intervals of up to nine months between regions and ethnic groups, one could suggest differentials between women of different regions and ethnic groups in coital frequencies, use of contraception, induced and spontaneous abortion, and the health and nutritional status of individual women. Differentials in coital frequencies between women of different ethnic groups in the immediate post-marital period are likely to result from differences in duration of exposure to intercourse and duration of cohabitation because of the north-south seasonal and long-term labour migration which exists in Ghana, affecting

Table 4.12: The median, trimean and selected quantiles of the first birth interval by socioeconomic characteristics of women

Q u a n t i l e s

tri-

variable No. T10 T25 T50 T75 mean Spread

R e g i o n o f r e s i d e n c e Western 143 7.3 9.6 14.6 27.6 16.6 18.0 Central 149 7.5 10.1 14.5 22.5 15.4 12.4 Greater Accra 266 8.6 10.8 17.5 31.6 19.4 20.8 Eastern 273 6.3 10.0 15.9 27.6 17.4 17.6 Volta 196 8.1 9.9 13.6 21.2 14.6 11.3 Ashanti 548 9.8 12.9 17.5 24.9 18.2 12.0 Brong Ahafo 161 10.3 13.2 18.3 25.4 18.8 12.2 Northern 123 10.6 15.3 22.6 35.6 24.0 20.3 Upper 171 8.5 11.6 20.3 41.8 23.5 30.2 E t h n i c i t y Akan 1122 8.4 11.5 16.5 25.0 17.4 13.5 Ga-Adangbe 153 8.2 11.7 17.5 29.7 19.1 18.0 Ewe 266 8.0 9.8 13.9 21.7 14.8 11.9 Mole-Dagbani 258 9.1 11.9 19.2 32.5 20.7 20.6 Other 231 9.3 14.3 22.1 37 . 5 24.0 23.2 E d u c a t i o n None 866 8-. 4 12.3 18.8 30.8 20.2 18.5 Primary 265 8.3 11.2 16.7 24 . 7 17.0 13.5 Middle 779 8.1 10.8 15.3 22.9 16.1 • 12.1 Higher 44 8.5 13.5 22.3 34.2 23.1 20.7 P r e m a r i t a l e m p l o y m e n t None 1246 8.1 11.5 17.2 26 . 7 18.2 15.2 P r o f ./T e c h . 31 7.7 10.4 14.6 26 . 3 16.5 15.9 A g r i c ./ H 'making 33 8.3 15.1 20.4 43.5 24.9 28.4 Others 344 8.4 11.9 17.6 28.4 18.9 16.5 P l a c e o f c u r r e n t r e s i d e n c e Rural 1319 8.4 11.4 16.7 26 . 2 17.8 14.8 Urban 711 8.5 9.6 17.9 28.8 18.6 19.2 P l a c e o f c h i l d h o o d r e s i d e n c e Rural 1139 8.5 11.5 17.2 26.9 18.2 15.4 Urban 881 8.4 11.4 16.9 27 . 6 18.2 16.2 C u r r e n t * c h i l d h o o d r e s i d e n c e Rural- rural 1018 8.4 11.1 16.8 26 .4 17.8 15.3 Urban-urban 585 8.4 11.4 17.3 28 .4 18.6 17.0 Migrants 417 8.7 12.2 17.4 27.0 18.5 14.8 R e l i g i o n Christian 1352 8 . 3 11.3 16.6 25.4 17.5 14.1 Muslim 250 9.3 12.4 18.9 30.0 20.1 17.6 Traditional+ 428 8.6 11.3 17.9 30.4 19.4 19 . 1

Table 4.12 continued ... P e r i o d 1968-72 951 8.3 11.4 17.0 27 . 2 18.2 15.8 1973-77 1079 8.7 11.5 17.1 27.0 18.2 15.5 E v e r - u s e of Never c o n t r a c e p t i o n 1190 8.9 11.9 18.0 29.5 19.4 17.6 Inefficient 405 8.1 10.8 15.6 22.9 16.2 12.1 Efficient 435 8.6 10.8 16.3 25.6 17.3 14.8

m ostly a d u lt m ales from n o rth ern G hana (Gaisie, 1981:240). Southern

G hana, as could be observed from the com parative regional analysis by Ewusie (1971) and Forde (1974) is m ore developed than northern Ghana. Levels of urbanization, education and economic developm ent are higher in the south, and m ost of the cocoa farms w hich attract farm labour are also located in the south. Norm ally, single males from the north m igrate first to the south in search of wage em ploym ent, and after they have secured a job, accom m odation and are well-settled, they send for their wives and children. This tem porary separation due to labour m igration w ould have depressing effects on subsequent fertility, especially on inter-birth intervals. If the m ales are single, then after they have secured a job, and are financially settled, they send m oney home for a wife to be m arried for them.

There is usually a time lag betw een w hen the m arriage is contracted and w hen the new wife joins her husband. This time lag which could be up to a year or m ore is im portant in influencing the duration of the birth interval and estim ates of the birth functions at various durations after first marriage. The longer m edian birth interval of the M ole-Dagbani and the N orthern and U pper regions are therefore understandable. The likelihood that the poor level of developm ent of the north com pared to the south w ould lead to differences in health and nutritional status of such a degree as would affect fertility is less convincing, as differentials in su b seq u en t fertility, particularly in inter-birth intervals betw een the n o rthern and southern ethnic groups can be explained differently.

There are how ever possible sources of differentials which should rather serve to lengthen the first birth interval in the south rather than in the north. For instance, levels of contraceptive usage are higher in the north than in the south. Just about three per cent of M ole-Dagbani w om en and w om en in n o rth e rn G hana have ever u sed efficient co n tracep tiv es compared to betw een 20 and 31 per cent of wom en in the south and between 16 and 51 per cent of w om en in the so u th ern ethnic groups. H ow ever, Tables 4.12 and 4.13 show that the first birth interval is even slightly longer for w om en w ho have never used co n tracep tiv es, a lth o u g h the b irth functions at all du ratio n s are not statistically different at the 95 per cent confidence level.

A lthough there is no reliable verifiable data on the level of induced abortion am ong the various regions and ethnic groups in Ghana, those that have been docum ented show that the level is quite high, particularly in urban areas and am ong young educated w om en and professionals. It also appears that m ost induced abortions are connected to education, particularly to the desire of young girls to finish higher education and secure a good well-paying job in the m odern sector of the economy (Bleek, 1990; Caldwell and Caldw ell, 188). These m otivations for abortion are likely to be more applicable to the south than the north, more especially because of the higher level of education and urbanization in the south. The longer first birth intervals in the north and am ong the M ole-Dagbani are therefore not likely to be due to abortion, use of contraception or poor health and nutritional status. It is m ore plausible that their longer first birth interval is due to a certain am ount of spousal separation in the im m ediate postm arital period. The existence of factors that could have a depressing effect on first birth intervals in the north m akes the observed longer birth intervals even more rem arkable and significant.

An examination of premarital conceptions, or B9 also reveals differentials between ethnic groups. While among the Mole-Dagbani and the other ethnic groups only nine to ten per cent of first births are premaritally conceived, the estimate for the other three southern ethnic groups is between 12 and 20 per cent. The estimated 95 per cent confidence intervals also reveal that the differentials between the three southern ethnic groups on the one hand, and the two northern ethnic groups on the other are statistically significant. The lower birth functions at duration nine months (Table 4.13) and the higher values of the tenth percentile (Table 4.12) in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions probably reflects more success in inducing premarital pregnancies than in a slower pace of fertility in the postmarital period. Most of the studies of abortion in Ghana (Fortes, 1946; Dinan, 1983; Bleek, 1990) show that the practice of abortion is traditionally known in several Akan areas, and is by no means limited to urban resident educated girls alone. Many of the differentials between regions and ethnic groups in the birth functions at 24 and 48 months are also statistically significant at the 95 per cent confidence level. After five years of first marriage however, almost similar proportions of women have had their first birth. Ethnicity and region of residence therefore seem to affect the pace of reproduction and not the quantum per se.