Two Approaches to the Study of the Disassociation between Sexual and Marital Life of the Urban Women and Men in Mexico

Adriana Pérez, El Colegio de México

This work explores the existence of a process of disassociation among sexual and marital life of men and women in Mexico, in which marriage does not regulate their sexual activity due to the use of contraceptive methods. As hypotheses I consider first, that urban men in Mexico tend to present a disassociation between sexual and marital life, while for women the beginning of their sexual life is strongly related to the age at the marital union; and second, that for both the use of contraceptives slows down the first union. With survival analysis as a tool, I will study urban women and men between 15-49 years old, users of the Mexican Institute of Social Welfare (IMSS) and interviewed in the National Survey of Reproductive Health (ENSARE, 1998).