. "8 The Transition to Parenthood." Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2005.
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Growing Up Global: The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries
for both. Table 8-1 shows that the proportion of men ages 15-19 who report that they have had a child is extremely low: 2-3 percent in the regions for which information is available. This is much lower than the proportion of adolescent women ages 15-19 who have done so (6-21 percent). Even at ages 20-24, young men are much less likely to have made the transition to fatherhood than young women: about 25 percent have done so in Latin America, compared with twice as many young women (50-60 percent). The differential is even larger in sub-Saharan Africa, where young women are three to five times as likely to have become a parent in their early 20s as young men. By their late 20s, however, 50-65 percent of men in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have become fathers, although this proportion is still lower than that among women of this age (74-89 percent). Gender differences in age patterns of parenthood reflect spousal age differences, discussed in Chapter 7.
Regional Population (female)
Who Ever Had a Child, Among Women Ages:
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
91.7
18.4
69.9
89.1
95.1
75.2
21.1
64.4
85.8
93.6
86.0
15.2
59.8
84.7
92.7
68.4
5.6
55.1
86.1
93.9
21.0
17.3
60.5
82.4
91.2
74.1
13.9
49.8
74.7
87.5
54.9
6.8
43.5
74.1
88.4
77.8
15.2
59.2
83.6
92.3
NOTES: n.a. = not available. Regional groupings based on United Nations World Population Prospects: The 2002 Revision (United Nations, 2003b).
SOURCES: Demographic and Health Surveys tabulations from 51 countries (females) and 26 countries (males). See Appendix Table 8-1 for data from each country.
