Abstract :
Background: Early and delayed marriage has their own effects on mothers and their children s health and social dimensions. Nowadays, Iran experiences delayed marriage due to several factors; thus, the present study was concocted to investigate the factors affecting youths’ marriage age, and to compare these factors between males and females. Methods: To study demographic, socioeconomical, and some atitudinal behavior factors affecting the age of marriage, in the current crosssectional study, 12741 Iranian premarried youths including 6381 males and 6360 females from all provinces were selected using multistage stratified method and the data was collected using a structured questionnaire in 2014. The questionnaire included demographic, socioeconomical, and some atitudinal behavior questions about childbearing. KaplanMeier, LogRank test, and parametric survival analysis were applied in IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0., and SAS 9.3 software. Results: Gamma and Log Logistic parametric models were the best fitted models for females’ and males’ marriage age, respectively. Females and males who lived in provinces with TFR 2 were married α=0.03 (95%CI=0.02_0.05) and α=0.05 (95%CI=0.04_0.06) times later than those who lived in provinces with TFR≥ 2, respectively. Rural females and males married α=0.06 (95%CI=0.08_0.03) and 0.02 (95%CI=0.06_0.03) times sooner than urban ones, respectively. As educational level, the number of siblings, and income increased, the youths’ marriage age increased (P≥0.05). Employed youths also married later compared with unemployed ones. Conclusion: Young females and males had the same factors influencing their marriage age.
