Early marriage practices undermine girls' autonomy and seriously affect their physical and mental wellbeing. Monitoring the trends and understanding the drivers is essential in intervening against early marriage. However, many studies on early marriage in Ethiopia are cross-sectional, focusing only on the magnitude at a single point in time. Hence, we extracted data of girls of 10-17 years from Kersa Health and Demographic Surveillance System (Kersa HDSS) database for the period of 2008-2018 in order to examine the trends of early marriage. In this data note we provide the details of a research database of 24,452 girls in the age group of 10-17 years. The extracted data include date of marriage and the girls' socio-demographic variables. Other variables considered to be potentially associated with timing of marriage were also extracted. The purpose of this publication is to describe the dataset for external researchers who may be interested in making use of it as a secondary use of their routinely collected data. This dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.15034812.
The study was an attempt to identify demographic, household, and women empowerment factors that predicted emotional, physical, and sexual violence in ever-married women of reproductive age (15-49 years, n = 3,965) in Pakistan by performing secondary analysis on Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2017-2018. The analysis was done using SPSS (v.22) and binary and multivariate logistic regression techniques were performed for analyses. The analysis found that 30.2% of women experienced emotional, 24.1% reported less severe physical, 6.5% experienced severe physical, and 4.3% experienced sexual violence, respectively. The multivariate analysis found that husband's age, education, wealth, and alcohol consumption were significant predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Additionally, womens' age, education, and number of children also significantly predicted IPV. With respect to empowerment variables, ownership of house was a significant predictor of less severe physical violence, ownership of property significantly predicted emotional violence, and autonomy in household purchase decisions was significantly related to severe physical violence. The control on husband's income as a measure of empowerment significantly predicted all four types of IPV. Belief in patriarchy also turned out to be an important factor in determining emotional and less severe physical violence. The study concludes that women empowerment in household context can prevent less serious forms of violence but to hinder serious forms of violence, interventions at family and community level will be required.
This study aimed to explore how young people exercise agency in rural Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia in relation to sex, relationships and marriage, to inform local programmes aiming to prevent teenage pregnancy and child marriage. In each country, focus group discussions with young people and parents, in-depth interviews with young people and a variety of other participants, and a household survey with young people (15-24 years) were conducted. We found that (child) marriage was often a response to teenage pregnancy, which was highly prevalent in all study areas. Young people's aspirations to enter adulthood were influenced by their life circumstances. Initiation ceremonies symbolised the transition to adulthood and gave social endorsement to young people to start engaging in (often unprotected) sexual activity. Given the uncertain socio-economic context, resource constraints led families to marry off their daughters; or girls themselves to marry early to relieve the burden on their families, but also to get pregnant as a 'next step' towards adulthood. Transactional sex was common. These intersecting cultural, social and economic contextual factors constrained young women's agency, more as compared to young men. However, young women did manoeuvre within contextual constraints to exercise a degree of agency.
High rates of divorce seem related to low marital satisfaction levels; however, there is still a lack of a model that can help understand the couple's resilience and fragility throughout the life cycle. This research explores the role of communication patterns, their own and partner's motivation for conjugality, cohesion and flexibility within a couple, and several sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., stage of the family life cycle) that can explain marital satisfaction. A sample of 331 Portuguese in a marital relationship completed a sociodemographic questionnaire and marital satisfaction measures, communication and conflict management competencies, cohesion and flexibility, and motivation. Adequate statistical analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling. Both measurement and structural model performed in the study presented a good fit, with five significant predictors of marital satisfaction (that accounted for 85% of the variability): intrinsic motivation (β = .64), communication (β = .31), families with young children (β = -.08), families with teenagers (β = -.07) and professional/academic status (β = .06). By identifying a model for marital satisfaction, this research provides clues regarding which aspects might need to be considered in couples' clinical work to promote healthier relationships.
José Abreu-Afonso, Maria Meireles Ramos, Inês Queiroz-Garcia et al.
The ways in which marital relationships (MR) affect parent-child relationships (PCR) vary from day-to-day and differ from one family to another. The day-to-day fluctuations of MR-PCR associations and the between-family differences, however, have been largely overlooked in the literature. Using daily diary data from 152 mother-father couples (with a 7- to 17-year-old child) across three consecutive years, we identified typologies based on parents' daily relational dynamics and examined the association between family typologies and child adjustment. State space grids of daily relationship quality (i.e., MR and PCR) were constructed for each parent at each wave of assessment. Grid-sequence analysis was subsequently conducted to identify multiple family typologies, including cohesive, fluctuating cohesive, spillover, compensatory, and moderate relationship typologies. Some typologies changed over the years and differed for fathers and mothers (e.g., the compensatory typology). Child adjustment problems were the highest in children from families with poor MR and PCR quality (i.e., the spillover typology). Overall, our results evince the heterogeneous nature of family relationship dynamics and the developmental implications of these typologies. For practitioners and therapists who work with families, our findings highlight the value of improving marital and parent-child relationship quality in promoting positive child outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Mengyu Miranda Gao, Lauren M Papp, E Mark Cummings
The International Rescue Committee's Life Skills Tailored Package for Early Marriage focuses on engaged, married, and divorced Syrian refugee girls aged 13-18 living in Lebanon. This paper details findings from a qualitative program evaluation. In-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) explored participants' viewpoints about program components. IDIs engaged program staff and adolescent girls. FGDs included adolescent girls, husbands/fathers, and mothers/mothers-in-law. Data were audio-recorded, transcribed, and assessed using inductive content analysis. Three themes emerged: (1) engaging influencers with discretion facilitated girls' participation, (2) reaching out to vulnerable girls required foresight and flexibility, and (3) participation fostered development of personal resources and adaptive capacities among adolescent girls, who described improvements in self-confidence for decision-making/time management, reproductive health knowledge, emotional regulation/understanding of healthy relationships, and self-protection. Efforts to improve psychosocial and reproductive health of refugee adolescent girls experiencing child marriage should integrate lessons learned through this program.
Lillian Whiting-Collins, Mona Tawk, Celia Karp et al.
INTRODUCTION: Youth (aged 10 to 24 years) comprise nearly one-third of Uganda's population and often face challenges accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, with a disproportionately high incidence of negative SRH outcomes. Responding to COVID-19, Uganda implemented strict public health measures including broad public transportation, schooling, and business shut-downs, causing mass reverse-migration of youth from urban schools and workplaces back to rural home villages. Our study aimed to qualitatively describe the perceived unintended impacts of COVID-19 health measures on youth SRH in two rural districts. METHODS: Semi-structured focus group discussions (FGD) and key informant interviews (KII) with purposively selected youth, parents, community leaders, community health worker (CHW) coordinators and supervisors, health providers, facility and district health managers, and district health officers were conducted to explore lived experiences and impressions of the impacts of COVID-19 measures on youth SRH. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded using deductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Four COVID-19-related themes and three subthemes resulted from 15 FGDs and 2 KIIs (n=94). Public transportation shutdown and mandatory mask-wearing were barriers to youth SRH care-seeking. School/workplace closures and subsequent urban youth migration back to rural homes increased demand at ill-prepared, rural health facilities, further impeding care-seeking. Youth reported fear of discovery by parents, which deterred SRH service seeking. Lockdown led to family financial hardship, isolation, and overcrowding; youth mistreatment, gender-based violence, and forced marriage ensued with some youth reportedly entering partnerships as a means of escape. Idleness and increased social contact were perceived to lead to increased and earlier sexual activity. Reported SRH impacts included increased severity of infection and complications due to delayed care seeking, and surges in youth sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, and abortion. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 public health measures reportedly reduced youth care seeking while increasing risky behaviours and negative SRH outcomes. Investment in youth SRH programming is critical to reverse unintended pandemic effects and regain momentum toward youth SRH targets. Future pandemic management must consider social and health disparities, and mitigate unintended risks of public health measures to youth SRH.
Sundus Khan, Elizabeth Kemigisha, Eleanor Turyakira et al.
Although norms of premarital sex vary cross-culturally, the sexuality of adolescent girls has been consistently more restricted than that of adolescent boys. Three major theories that attempt to explain restrictions on female premarital sex (FPS) concern male, female, and parental control. These competing theories have not been tested against each other cross-culturally. In this study, we do this using a sample of 128 nonindustrial societies and socioecological predictors capturing extramarital sex, paternal care, female status, sex ratio, parental control over a daughter's mate choice, residence, and marriage transactions, while also controlling for phylogenetic non-independence across societies. We found that multiple parties benefit from restrictions on FPS. Specifically, FPS is more restricted in societies intolerant of extramarital sex and where men transfer property to their children (male control), as well as where marriages are arranged by parents (parental control). Both paternity uncertainty (partitioned among marital fidelity and paternal investment) and parent-offspring conflict (prompting parents to control their daughter's sexuality) were identified as possible mechanisms of FPS restrictions. The evidence for female control is ambiguous, mainly because it can be equally well interpreted as both male control and parental control, and because fathers, rather than mothers, are often the primary decision makers about a daughter's mate choice. Our results also emphasize the importance of social roles, rather than stereotyped sex roles, as a more useful approach to understanding the evolution of FPS restrictions.
Using Norwegian register data on the total population of individuals who were native-born or who immigrated prior to age 18, this study investigated differences in first union formation across migrant generations, global regions of origin, and gender. Cohabitation was the preferred route into partnerships for all groups, but it was most common among those with either one or two native-born parents. Results provided evidence of a generational gradient in marriage, whereby the native-born children of two immigrants and those immigrating in ages below 13 were less likely to marry than immigrants arriving as teens. Those native born with one native and one immigrant parent were least likely to marry, but most likely to cohabit. The children of immigrants originating from Asia, MENA and Eastern Europe were more marriage prone, whereas those of South-American and European origins were more cohabitation prone, than those originating from elsewhere. Women of most origins and generations more often married compared with men, and this gender gap was largest among those originating from MENA.
BACKGROUND: Though the harmful impacts of child marriage have been evaluated across several domains, evidence on the relationship between child marriage and health behaviors over the life course is limited. In this paper, we examined whether getting married as a child is associated with one of the most common risky health behaviors, tobacco use, in adulthood. METHODS: Using nationally representative data from India, we compared the odds in favor of tobacco use among early adult (age 22-34) and early middle-aged (age 35-44) women who were married before age 18 with that of those who were married as youths (age 18-21). We estimated univariate and multivariable logistic regressions to obtain odds ratios in favor of any tobacco-use and relative risk ratios in favor of mutually exclusive types of tobacco use (smoking-only, smokeless-only, and dual-use). We also explored the intensive margin of the relationship by assessing if the odds of tobacco use in adulthood were affected by how early (13 or less, 14-15, or 16-17) a child bride was married. RESULTS: We find that the adjusted odds of tobacco use for those who were married as a child were 1.3 and 1.2 times that of those who were married as a youth among early adult and early middle-aged women, respectively. The younger was the child bride when married, the higher were the odds of tobacco use as an adult. The relative risks of different types of tobacco use were also higher for child brides than their peers. CONCLUSIONS: These results are the first evidence of the association between child marriage and a major risky health behavior, tobacco use, over the life course. These findings will inform policies to strengthen child marriage prevention efforts and targeted tobacco control initiatives in the low-and-middle income countries.
