Contemporary Marriage in Cambodia

Previous work has suggested that the drastic Khmer-Rouge-era changes to the family institution have not endured. Potentially more influential in the long term were the rapid socio-economic changes Cambodia underwent starting in the 1990s. We use four waves of the Cambodian Demographic and Health Surveys from 2000 to 2014 to document contemporary trends in marriage formation and dissolution. We find little change in the centrality of marriage, as both cohabitation and sex between unmarried partners remain quite rare. Marriage also continues to be nearly universal and early for women, but we find that the transition to self-arranged “love” marriages occurred earlier and faster than previously documented. A sign that parental endorsement may still matter though, marriage dissolution continues to be associated with spousal characteristics deemed undesirable by past generations. While higher among recent marriage cohorts, especially in the first year after marriage, levels of marriage dissolution remain comparatively low overall.

[1]  S. Desai,et al.  The Emergence of Educational Hypogamy in India , 2020, Demography.

[2]  A. Cherlin.  Degrees of Change: An Assessment of the Deinstitutionalization of Marriage Thesis , 2020, Journal of Marriage and Family.

[3]  J. Bavel,et al.  The Reversal of the Gender Gap in Education and Its Consequences for Family Life , 2018, Annual Review of Sociology.

[4]  Gavin W. Jones,et al.  Families in Southeast and South Asia , 2018, Annual Review of Sociology.

[5]  P. Heuveline,et al.  Household Structure and Child Education in Cambodia. , 2017, International journal of population studies.

[6]  Elyse A. Jennings.  Predictors of Marital Dissolution During a Period of Rapid Social Change: Evidence From South Asia , 2016, Demography.

[7]  K. Allendorf,et al.  The Decline of Arranged Marriage? Marital Change and Continuity in India. , 2016, Population and development review.

[8]  P. Heuveline,et al.  One-Parent Families in Contemporary Cambodia , 2016, Marriage & family review.

[9]  Yu Xie,et al.  Marriage and Family in East Asia: Continuity and Change. , 2015, Annual review of sociology.

[10]  P. Heuveline.  The boundaries of genocide: Quantifying the uncertainty of the death toll during the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia (1975–79) , 2015, Population studies.

[11]  Arielle Kuperberg.  Age at Coresidence, Premarital Cohabitation, and Marriage Dissolution: 1985–2009 , 2014 .

[12]  Judy L. Ledgerwood.  Buddhist Ritual and the Reordering of Social Relations in Cambodia , 2012 .

[13]  Pilapa Esara.  Moral Scrutiny, Marriage Inequality: Cohabitation in Bangkok, Thailand , 2012 .

[14]  K. Nishigaya.  LIVING AWAY FROM HOME , 2010 .

[15]  Yingli Li,et al.  Domestic Violence against Women in Cambodia: Husband’s Control, Frequency of Spousal Discussion, and Domestic Violence Reported by Cambodian Women , 2010, Journal of Family Violence.

[16]  C. Fuller,et al.  Companionate marriage in India: the changing marriage system in a middle‐class Brahman subcaste , 2008 .

[17]  Peter Xenos,et al.  EMERGING FORMS OF UNION FORMATION IN THE PHILIPPINES , 2007 .

[18]  P. Heuveline,et al.  The phoenix population: Demographic crisis and rebound in Cambodia , 2007, Demography.

[19]  Jennifer S. Carrera,et al.  Domestic Violence Against Married Women in Cambodia , 2006 .

[20]  P. Heuveline,et al.  Do marriages forget their past? Marital stability in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia , 2006, Demography.

[21]  C. Hirschman,et al.  Cultural and Socioeconomic Influences on Divorce During Modernization: Southeast Asia, 1940s to 1960s , 2003 .

[22]  C. Hughes.  Khmer Land, Khmer Soul: Sam Rainsy, Populism, and the Problem of Seeing Cambodia , 2001 .

[23]  David M. Ayres.  Tradition, Modernity, and the Development of Education in Cambodia , 2000, Comparative Education Review.

[24]  Judy L. Ledgerwood.  Khmer Kinship: The Matriliny/Matriarchy Myth , 1995, Journal of Anthropological Research.

[25]  W. Sittitrai,et al.  Sexual activity among never-married men in northern Thailand , 1993, Demography.

[26]  D. J. Landry,et al.  Race and the retreat from marriage: A shortage of marriageable men? , 1992 .

[27]  S. Morgan,et al.  Sons, Daughters, and the Risk of Marital Disruption , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[28]  A. Cherlin.  First Union Patterns Around the World: Introduction to the Special Issue , 2014 .

[29]  P. Levine,et al.  Love and Dread in Cambodia: Weddings, Births and Ritual Harm under the Khmer Rouge , 2010 .

[30]  A. Derks.  Khmer women on the move , 2008 .

[31]  C. Hirschman,et al.  Why fertility changes. , 1994, Annual review of sociology.

[32]  O. Wolters.  History, culture, and region in Southeast Asian perspectives , 1982 .