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It documents diverse patterns in spousal age gaps and evaluates how marriage age and women’s education shape those differences. The analysis links observed trends to family and marriage system characteristics, including kinship structures, prevalence of early marriage, divorce and remarriage, and gender inequality, offering a comparative understanding of age gap variation in Asia.",{"@graph":63,"@context":119},[64,80,102],{"@type":65,"itemListElement":66},"BreadcrumbList",[67,71,74,77],{"item":68,"name":69,"@type":70,"position":9},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":72,"name":10,"@type":70,"position":73},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/",2,{"item":75,"name":51,"@type":70,"position":76},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/general/",3,{"item":78,"name":59,"@type":70,"position":79},"https://docshare.wps.com/template/age-gap-between-spouses-in-south-and-southeast-asia/565385/",4,{"url":78,"name":59,"@type":81,"image":82,"author":87,"headline":59,"publisher":90,"fileFormat":93,"inLanguage":57,"description":61,"dateModified":94,"datePublished":95,"encodingFormat":93,"isAccessibleForFree":96,"interactionStatistic":97},"DigitalDocument",{"url":83,"@type":84,"width":85,"height":86},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/age-gap-between-spouses-in-south-and-southeast-asia/565385.png","ImageObject",442,249,{"name":88,"@type":89},"Rowan","Person",{"url":68,"name":91,"@type":92},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-10-13",true,{"@type":98,"interactionType":99,"userInteractionCount":101},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":100},"ViewAction",7,{"@type":103,"mainEntity":104},"FAQPage",[105,111,115],{"name":106,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":108},"What is the paper’s main objective?","Question",{"text":109,"@type":110},"To systematically investigate spousal age differences using recent data from 12 countries across South and Southeast Asia, describing pattern diversity and assessing the roles of marriage age and women’s education.","Answer",{"name":112,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":113},"How does the paper define age homogamy and age heterogamy?",{"text":114,"@type":110},"Age homogamy refers to marriages where spouses are similar in age. Age heterogamy refers to marriages where spouses’ ages are dissimilar, regardless of whether the husband or wife is older.",{"name":116,"@type":107,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What factors are linked to higher prevalence of age hypergamous marriages?",{"text":118,"@type":110},"The paper links age hypergamy to the premium on men’s economic stability (increasing with age) and women’s reproductive potential (declining with age), while later changes such as more women’s non-domestic work and falling demand for children weaken that link.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":78,"og:type":121,"og:title":59,"og:site_name":91,"og:description":61},"article",{"robots":123,"canonical":78},"index,follow",{"doc_id":125,"site_id":56},565385,1792093508,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":128},{"doc_id":125,"user_id":129,"nickname":88,"user_avatar":130,"doc_module":9,"category_id":50,"category_name":51,"doc_title":59,"doc_description":61,"doc_content":131,"file_id":132,"file_url":133,"file_type":134,"file_size":135,"view_count":101,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":9,"is_downloadable":9,"audit_status":9,"page_count":136,"language":137,"language_code":57,"site_id":56,"html_lang":57,"table_of_contents":138,"faqs":139,"seo_title":140,"seo_description":61,"update_tm":141,"read_time":101},1099514067415,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002539d78ffe74a7?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779092875211072502","Age Gap Between Spouses in South and Southeast Asia  \nIn western industrialized societies there has been a trend towards declining age differences and shift towards marriages in which both spouses are of similar ages (Kolk, 2015; Shafer, 2013; Uggla & Wilson, 2020) . In contrast to the literature from western countries, there is surprisingly little known about age differences in Asian countries. The last major comparative study that included and discussed Asian countries was published over 35 years ago by Casterline et al. in 1986.  \nThe paper focuses on two regions of Asia—South and Southeast Asia. The countries in the two regions present a rich diversity of family, marriage, social patterns and provide a good setting to examine the age differences. Yeung et al.’s (2018) review article highlights some of the key features of family and marriage patterns in the two regions. These features form the context to understand the age difference patterns. In terms of family and kinship, Southeast Asia is predominately bilateral with flexible arrangements and much more gender egalitarian structures compared to patrilineal and patrilocal structures seen in South Asia. Marriage remains a key institution with non-marriage rates extremely low in South Asia and much of Southeast Asia (with some exceptions such as higher non marriage rates in Myanmar) . Early marriage once a common feature in the two regions has declined, though marriage is relatively early in international comparison. Marriages continue to be arranged with varying degree of involvement of the parents in much of South Asia while such practices are no longer common in much of Southeast Asia. Divorce and remarriages occur less frequently in South Asia compared to Southeast Asia. Educational expansion has occurred in most countries in the two regions with female advantage at higher levels of education seen in many countries. The countries in the two regions vary not only in family, social and cultural aspects but have seen different trajectories of economic and social changes over the last two decades. Countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, for instance, witnessed painful economic transitions. Indonesia also witnessed political changes.  \nThe main objective of the present study is to systematically investigate age differences by using most recent data from 12 countries across South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan) and Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam) . The paper focuses on describing the diversity of patterns of age gaps in the two regions. And in examining the role of marriage age and women’s education on age gaps. The study adds to the comparative understanding of age differences and to the literature on marriage systems in Asia.  \nAge Homogamy and Heterogamy  \nAge homogamy refers to marriages in which age of both spouses is similar. Age heterogamy refers to marriages in which the age of the spouses is dissimilar, irrespective of whether husband or wife is older. Gendered age gaps are referred as either age hypergamous (husband is older than the wife) or age hypogamous (wife is older than the husband) .  \nA common pattern observed in many countries in the past was age hypergamy. One explanation for higher prevalence of age hypergamous marriages was the premium placed on economic stability of men and reproductive potential of women. Economic stability for men increased with age whereas reproductive potential for women declined with age, and combination of these two factors resulted in age hypergamous marriages (Carollo et al. , 2019; Uggla & Wilson, 2020) . This link, however, weakened as women’s participation in non-domestic work increased and as demand for children fell (Utomo, 2014) . This has reduced the preference for age hypergamous marriages resulting in increases in age homogamous marriages. The contribution of husband to family income has narrowed with women’s work (Carollo et al. , 2019) . Rec","cbCaigQQl4vuGG35","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigQQl4vuGG35","pdf",532005,20,"English","# Age Gap Between Spouses in South and Southeast Asia\n## Age Homogamy and Heterogamy\n## Age hypergamy and changing gender patterns\n## Social norms and shifts in marriage preferences","[{\"question\":\"What is the paper’s main objective?\",\"answer\":\"To systematically investigate spousal age differences using recent data from 12 countries across South and Southeast Asia, describing pattern diversity and assessing the roles of marriage age and women’s education.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper define age homogamy and age heterogamy?\",\"answer\":\"Age homogamy refers to marriages where spouses are similar in age. Age heterogamy refers to marriages where spouses’ ages are dissimilar, regardless of whether the husband or wife is older.\"},{\"question\":\"What factors are linked to higher prevalence of age hypergamous marriages?\",\"answer\":\"The paper links age hypergamy to the premium on men’s economic stability (increasing with age) and women’s reproductive potential (declining with age), while later changes such as more women’s non-domestic work and falling demand for children weaken that link.\"}]","Age Gap Between Spouses in South and Southeast Asia | PDF",1791852762]