Child Marriage Laws around the World: Minimum Marriage Age, Legal Exceptions, and Gender Disparities

Increases in child marriage among the poorest in Mali: 'Reverse policies' or data quality issues?

Child marriage is associated with adverse outcomes related to women's well-being. Many countries have introduced laws banning this practice, and a number of studies have evaluated their impact. Scant research has focused on instances where countries have lowered the legal minimum age at marriage, even though such 'reverse policies' could result in stalled or uneven progress in eradicating child marriage. Using visualization techniques, regression analyses, and multiple robustness checks, we document changes in the prevalence of child marriage in Mali, where in 2011 the general minimum age at marriage of 18 was lowered to 16. Since 2011, the prevalence of child marriage has progressively increased among women with no education and women living in communities characterized by low local development. We reflect on the role that data collection processes may play in explaining some of these findings and stress how repealing existing provisions aiming to protect girls can have adverse consequences on the most vulnerable social strata.

An evaluation of early marriage and the mental state of Roma women: A cross-sectional study

Early marriage (i.e., at less than 18 years of age) is a significant global problem threatening the well-being of women. This cross-sectional study evaluated early marriage and the mental health of Roma women in Adana, Turkey. Data were collected between March 2019 and September 2019 using the Descriptive Characteristics Form and the Brief Symptom Inventory. We interviewed 272 married Roma women over 18 years of age, of whom 59.6% (n = 162) had married before the age of 18 years; of these, 14.2% had done so before the age of 15. Significant positive correlations were found between the duration of the marriage and measures of interpersonal sensitivity, somatization, depression, anxiety, phobia, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, and the Global Severity Index in the women who had married early. Among women who married after 18, the duration of marriage had a significant positive relationship with somatization and phobic anxiety. Early marriage and a longer duration of marriage were associated with more symptoms of psychological distress.

Setting research priorities for prevention and response to child marriage in communities in the Arab region: findings from a multi-stage Delphi study involving practitioners across the region

Globally, more than 12 million girls under the age of 18 are forced to marry every year. Progress on ending child marriage in the Arab region is slowing, and risks being reversed, due to an increase in conflict-affected populations and widespread economic crisis. The aim of this paper is to consider the research priorities across the region to inform effective and accelerated child marriage prevention and response programming within the Arab region. Seventy-three specialists supporting child marriage prevention and response programming in the Arab region engaged with up to three phases of an online Delphi consultation process on research gaps and the research environment between July 2019 and December 2021. Proposals of research gaps were elicited, reviewed, and rated by participants to confirm a shared learning agenda. Participants identified 50 different research gaps across 7 main areas, reaching a high level of consensus support for 23 of 50 statements. Clear consensus was reached in relation to an increased need to produce and use evidence to support programme development, and further research on specific drivers and consequences of child marriage. The least consensus was found in relation to how research can inform prevention and response efforts within the law and legal system. The results provide the foundation of a child marriage research agenda for the Arab region which takes into account regional distinctiveness and builds on the global momentum for child marriage research. Mechanisms are in place to do this through the Regional Action Forum, and other networks across the region.

Prevalence and factors associated with child marriage, a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Girl child marriage is increasingly recognized as a critical barrier to global public health and gender discrimination. There are still more gaps in the global rate of child marriage and the underlying factors. Thus, the present systematic review aimed to explore the prevalence of child marriage and the underlying factors.

METHODS

A comprehensive search was conducted for all English-language studies that measured the prevalence of child marriage and its correlates from 2000 to March 2022, indexed in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Poplin, and Google Scholar databases. Child marriage is defined as marriage under the age of 18. In the present study, Joanna Briggs' quality assessment checklist was used for data collection. Two independent reviewers reviewed all the articles.

RESULTS

In total, 34 eligible prevalence articles and 14 trend articles were included in the study with data from 127,945 participants. The prevalence of child marriage ranged between 1.8% to 90.85%. In most studies, the trend of child marriage was decreasing. The most important individual factors include the respondent's education and occupation, interpersonal factors such as the education and occupation of parents and husband, family size and type. Community factors include socioeconomic status, region, residence, ethnicity, and religion at the social level.

CONCLUSION

Despite a central focus of research and policies on interventions that decrease child marriage, this phenomenon is still prevalent in many places. Therefore, further specific interventions are required to improve education, reduce poverty and inequality. This may help achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Disability among Women and Men Who Married in Childhood: Evidence from Cross-Sectional Nationally Representative Surveys Undertaken in 37 Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Child marriage, which the UN's Sustainable Development Goal seeks to eliminate by 2030, represents a violation of the human rights of children. These concerns are driven by the negative impact of child marriage on the health of children married in childhood and their children. Little is known about the association between child marriage and disability. We sought to estimate the strength of association between disability and child marriage among women and men in middle- and low-income countries (LMICs). Secondary analysis was undertaken of nationally representative samples involving 423,164 women in 37 LMICs and 95,411 men in 28 LMICs. Results were aggregated by random effects meta-analysis and mixed effects multilevel multivariate modelling. The prevalence of disability was significantly greater among women and men who were married in childhood, especially among those married under the age of 16. The strength of these associations varied by age group and age at first marriage. Further research is required to understand the causal pathways responsible for the increased likelihood of disability among women and men married in childhood. National initiatives to eliminate child marriage may need to consider making reasonable accommodations to policies to ensure these are equally effective for women and men with disabilities.

Child Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence: An Examination of Individual, Community, and National Factors

Despite being a human rights violation, child marriage still takes place across the globe. Prior scholarship has shown early marriage to be associated with an increased risk of intimate partner violence (IPV). Drawing on data from the nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys-conducted in developing and transitional nations where rates of child marriage tend to be higher-the current study provides a cross-national examination of individual-, community-, and national-level predictors of child marriage and their association with physical and emotional IPV. The sample of ever married women includes 281,674 respondents across 46 developing and transitional nations. Findings reveal the prevalence of child marriage was largely consistent with worldwide estimates. Over half of the sample (59.97%) were over the age of 18 when they married and about 1 in 10 women were married at age 14 or younger. A later age at marriage, measured continuously, was associated with lower odds of physical and emotional IPV. When considering the 18 and over cutoff traditionally used to operationalize child marriage, the odds of physical and emotional IPV were lower for women who married over the age of 18 than women who were 14 and younger when they married. However, there was a confounding effect when considering age at marriage as 18 and over when community-level predictors were not included in the model estimating physical abuse. This underscores the need to consider the nested nature of respondents' experiences. Further, national legislation that protects against child marriage was not associated with risk of physical or emotional IPV. However, population size increased the odds of physical IPV and lowered the odds of emotional IPV. Such findings can be interpreted in light of opportunity theory and provide direction for prevention and intervention programming.

Marital status, immigration, and reproductive health among adolescent mothers in Canada, 1990-2018: A population-based, observational study

Immigrants to Canada increasingly come from regions where child marriage (<18 years) is prevalent. We described the prevalence, demographic characteristics, and reproductive health correlates of marriage among births to Canadian-born and foreign-born adolescent mothers. Using Canadian birth registrations from 1990 to 2018, marriage prevalence, parental birth region, and parental age gap were examined by maternal birthplace (Canada and 12 world regions) among births to mothers <18 years. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) of preterm birth (PTB), small for gestational age (SGA), and repeat birth were estimated for the joint associations of adolescent maternal age group (<18-year, 18-19-year, and 20-24-year), marriage, and nativity status (n = 1,904,200). Depending on maternal birthplace, marital births represented 2.6% to 81.8% of births to mothers <18 years. Marriage among mothers giving birth at <18 years was associated with higher proportions of parents from the same birthplace and larger parental age gaps. AORs of PTB tended to increase with lower maternal age. AORs of SGA were generally higher among births to foreign-born mothers. Marriage was associated with lower AORs of PTB and SGA among births to Canadian-born mothers and PTB among births to foreign-born mothers in the older adolescent age groups, but no association existed in the <18-year group. Marriage was positively associated with repeat birth in all adolescent age groups, with stronger associations in the <18-year group. The reproductive health correlates of marriage are similar between births to Canadian-born and foreign-born mothers <18 years but some differ between births to mothers <18 years and those to older adolescent mothers.

Prevalence of Early Marriage and Its Underlying Causes in Nepal: A Mixed Methods Study

Early marriage is one of the major traditional practices that affects the life of both boys and girls in many different ways. In this context, this research assessed the prevalence of early marriage and derived its underlying causes. Adopting a mixed methods approach, first, the study surveyed a sample of 1350 households of Nepal in which at least a marriage took place within the five years before the survey. Following a survey, secondly, the study explored 30 unique cases of early marriage, and ten among them were studied in more depth through face-to-face interviews. Logistic regression was applied to determine the factors that could influence the prevalence of early marriage. It was then followed by an analysis of the qualitative data. The research findings demonstrate that there is a high prevalence of early marriage (49.6%) among households within Nepal; nevertheless, the overall trend of early marriage is noted at a decreasing trend over the years. Undoubtedly, factors such as the level of education of the family members, the gender of the head of the household, and religion, influence the predisposition to early marriage within Nepal. Early marriage is undeniably a subjective phenomenon; however, such subjectivity is shaped by the socio-economic situation, as well as individual and family values. Thus, among others, the study implied that improving the strategies that promote higher formal schooling could reduce the prevalence of early marriage and thereby result in associated beneficial welfare effects in Nepal.

Intertwined epidemics: progress, gaps, and opportunities to address intimate partner violence and HIV among key populations of women

The intersection of intimate partner violence and HIV is a public health problem, particularly among key populations of women, including female sex workers, women who use drugs, and transgender women, and adolescent girls and young women (aged 15-24 years). Intimate partner violence results in greater risk of HIV acquisition and creates barriers to HIV prevention, testing, treatment, and care for key populations of women. Socioecological models can be used to explain the unique multilevel mechanisms linking intimate partner violence and HIV. Few interventions, modelling studies, and economic evaluations that concurrently address both intimate partner violence and HIV exist, with no interventions tailored for transgender populations. Most combination interventions target individual-level risk factors, and rarely consider community or structural factors, or evaluate cost-efficacy. Addressing intimate partner violence is crucial to ending the HIV epidemic; this Review highlights the gaps and opportunities for future research to address the intertwined epidemics of intimate partner violence and HIV among key populations of women.

Child Marriage in Mainland China

Child marriage, defined as marriage before 18 years of age, has harmful consequences for health and development and is an indicator of gender inequality. We used publicly available data from the 2000 and 2010 censuses to estimate the national and provincial-level prevalence of child marriage across mainland China. Between 2000 and 2010, the prevalence of child marriage rose from 2.41 percent to 2.85 percent among women and from 0.54 percent to 0.77 percent among men. The 2010 estimates are equivalent to roughly 1.8 million women and 0.5 million men. Child marriage was more common in western provinces among both girls and boys. Provincial prevalence estimates ranged from 0.44 percent in Beijing to 12.94 percent in Qinghai among girls. Among boys, estimates ranged from 0.13 percent in Beijing to 5.03 percent in Tibet. The gender gap widened across much of the country between censuses. Our results indicate that child marriage continues across mainland China despite laws that ostensibly prohibit the practice. They also draw attention to the global nature of child marriage as a threat to gender equality.

Progress in National Policies Supporting the Sustainable Development Goals: Policies that Matter to Income and Its Impact on Health

From education to working conditions, from income to discrimination, social determinants of health (SDH) shape the majority of health outcomes. Governments are often best positioned to address the major SDH on a population-wide basis. In 2015, governments around the world committed to improving all core SDH when all countries agreed to a set of goals that would improve education, work, income, and equal opportunity, among other areas, in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using data from the WORLD Policy Analysis Center, this article highlights how quantitative policy measures can be used to hold governments accountable for their commitments to the SDGs and thus to improve the SDH. Three areas are examined in detail to illustrate this approach to monitoring policy change: ensuring an adequate income, enhancing equal opportunities at work by prohibiting discrimination and sexual harassment, and enabling children and youth to complete their education.

Transforming social norms to improve girl-child health and well-being: a realist evaluation of the Girls' Holistic Development program in rural Senegal

BACKGROUND

Early adolescence is a critical period where social norms, attitudes, and behaviors around gender equality form. Social norms influence adolescent choices and behaviors and are reinforced by caregivers and community members, affecting girls' reproductive health and educational opportunities. Understanding how to shift these often-interconnected norms to delay child marriage, pregnancy and keep girls in school requires understanding of the structure and dynamics of family and community systems. The Senegalese and American non-governmental organization, the Grandmothers Project-Change through Culture, seeks to address these intertwined factors through innovative community change strategies that build on the specific structure and values of West African collectivist cultures.

METHODS

The Girls' Holistic Development approach in rural Vélingara, Senegal posits that by increasing recognition, knowledge and empowerment of elder community women and reinforcing intergenerational communication and decision-making, community members including girls will support and advocate on behalf of girls' interests and desires. We assessed the Girls Holistic Development approach using Realist Evaluation with a mixed-method, quasi-experimental design with a comparison population. We examined differences in intergenerational communication, decision-making and descriptive and injunctive norms related to early marriage, pregnancy and schooling.

RESULTS

After 18 months, intergenerational communication was more likely, grandmothers felt more valued in their communities, adolescent girls felt more supported with improved agency, and norms were shifting to support delayed marriage and pregnancy and keeping girls in school. Grandmothers in intervention villages were statistically significantly more likely to be perceived as influential decision-makers by both VYA girls and caregivers for marriage and schooling decisions compared to girls and caregivers in comparison villages.

CONCLUSIONS

This realist evaluation demonstrated shift in social norms, particularly for VYA girls, in intervention villages favoring delaying girls' marriage, preventing early pregnancy and keeping girls in school along with increased support for and action by grandmothers to support girls and their well-being related to these same outcomes. These shifts represent greater community social cohesion on girl-child issues. This research helps explain the linkage between social norms and girls' reproductive health and education outcomes and demonstrates that normative shifts can lead to behavior change via collective community action mechanisms.

Mental health in Lebanon: Tomorrow's silent epidemic

Lebanon is a middle-income country that has been recently crippled by several tragedies including the economic collapse, COVID-19, and the fourth of August Beirut port explosion, the world’s most powerful non-nuclear explosion of the twenty-first century. Recent data on mental health from Lebanon is summarised, and other topics such as the psychological impact of cumulative adversities and the role of international support in Lebanon are examined. Data from Lebanon shows severe levels of distress among the people, in a country with minimal resources. Given current adversities in Lebanon, recent data in the country, and the literature on adversity and mental health outcomes of man-made disasters, Lebanon is most likely going to face an epidemic in poor mental health. A call is made for the wider scientific community and international organizations to support the mental health field in the country and help prevent further negative mental health outcomes. Understanding how to better navigate mental health in places with extreme adversity and emergencies can be beneficial to other communities which might face similar challenges.

Marrying Young: Limiting the Impact of a Crisis on the High Prevalence of Child Marriages in Niger

Child marriage is a harmful and discriminatory global practice, robbing millions of girls of their childhood. Global attention and momentum to end early marriage has increased over the years; however, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected this progress. It has been predicted that over the next decade up to 10–13 million more girls will be at risk of child marriage because of the pandemic. Since Niger has consistently had the highest rate of child marriage in the world, this study will explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on child marriages within the west and African region but specifically within Niger. This article will look at past response efforts to other pandemics, specifically Ebola, and show how the girl-child remains disproportionately disadvantaged, especially during pandemics. The article will conclude with recommendations on the importance of incorporating a gender analysis into preparedness and response efforts to eliminate child marriages.

Conceptualizing "agency" within child marriage: Implications for research and practice

BACKGROUND

The concept of child 'agency' has become increasingly important for international child-centric organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and United Nations (UN) agencies, particularly those responding to the issue of child marriage. Interventions to prevent child marriage often include awareness-raising activities focused on sharing information with children on the dangers of child marriage. Such interventions are often based on, and perpetuate, a belief that increased knowledge can lead to an increase in girls' agency. In this framing, agency is presumed to result in a 'good' decision and is positioned as a natural consequence of increased knowledge. This agency is said to enable girls to resist marriages forced upon them by their parents.

OBJECTIVE

This discussion paper aims to interrogate dominant conceptualizations of child agency through an exploration of child agency narratives on child marriage.

METHODS

This discussion paper is based on critical analysis of existing academic and grey (NGO and UN) literature that explores children's agency in the context of child marriage prevention.

RESULTS

This discussion paper suggests that academics, NGOs and UN actors use varied definitions to describe agency. While academic analysis shows that children's agency might be contested, contradictory and fraught, NGO and UN agencies tend to narrowly frame agency.

CONCLUSIONS

We suggest that adopting a broader definition of children's agency in research and implementation enables a more nuanced, complex understanding of the drivers of child marriage and the interventions required to address this practice.

Trends in child marriage and new evidence on the selective impact of changes in age-at-marriage laws on early marriage

This study adopts a cohort perspective to explore trends in child marriage – defined as the proportion of girls who entered first union before the age of 18 – and the effectiveness of policy changes aimed at curbing child marriage by increasing the minimum legal age of marriage. We adopt a cross-national perspective comparing six low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that introduced changes in the minimum age at marriage over the past two decades. These countries belong to three broad regions: Sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Mauritania), Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan), and South Asia (Nepal, Bhutan). We combine individual-level data from Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys with longitudinal information on policy changes from the PROSPERED (Policy-Relevant Observational Studies for Population Health Equity and Responsible Development) project. We adopt data visualization techniques and a regression discontinuity design to obtain estimates of the effect of changes in age-at-marriage laws on early marriage. Our results suggest that changes in minimum-age-at-marriage laws were not effective in curbing early marriage in Benin, Mauritania, Kazakhstan, and Bhutan, where child marriage showed little evidence of decline across cohorts. Significant reductions in early marriage following law implementations were observed in Tajikistan and Nepal, yet their effectiveness depended on the model specification and window adopted, thus making them hardly effective as policies to shape girls' later life trajectories. Our findings align with existing evidence from other countries suggesting that changes in age-at-marriage laws rarely achieve the desired outcome. In order for changes in laws to be effective, better laws must be accompanied by better enforcement and monitoring to delay marriage and protect the rights of women and girls. Alternative policies need to be devised to ensure that girls’ later-life outcomes, including their participation in higher education and society, are ensured, encouraged, and protected.

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Changes in age-at-marriage laws have only a limited impact on delaying marriage age.

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In Benin, Mauritania, Kazakhstan and Bhutan, laws did not curb early marriage.

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In Tajikistan and Nepal results depend on model specification.

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Better enforcement must accompany the implementation of the age-at-marriage laws.

Married Too Young? The Behavioral Ecology of ‘Child Marriage’

For girls and women, marriage under 18 years is commonplace in many low-income nations today and was culturally widespread historically. Global health campaigns refer to marriage below this threshold as ‘child marriage’ and increasingly aim for its universal eradication, citing its apparent negative wellbeing consequences. Here, we outline and evaluate four alternative hypotheses for the persistence of early marriage, despite its associations with poor wellbeing, arising from the theoretical framework of human behavioral ecology. First, early marriage may be adaptive (e.g., it maximizes reproductive success), even if detrimental to wellbeing, when life expectancy is short. Second, parent–offspring conflict may explain early marriage, with parents profiting economically at the expense of their daughter’s best interests. Third, early marriage may be explained by intergenerational conflict, whereby girls marry young to emancipate themselves from continued labor within natal households. Finally, both daughters and parents from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds favor early marriage as a ‘best of a bad job strategy’ when it represents the best option given a lack of feasible alternatives. The explanatory power of each hypothesis is context-dependent, highlighting the complex drivers of life history transitions and reinforcing the need for context-specific policies addressing the vulnerabilities of adolescence worldwide.

Challenges and strategies to end child marriage

OBJECTIVES

Child marriage is one of the most important challenges of the current era that threatens women's health and violates human rights. The present study aimed to systematically review studies evaluating the challenges and strategies to overcome child marriage.

CONTENT

Medical databases (CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, Web of Science, ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Source, and Social Science Research Network, as databases for English studies and IranMedex, Google Scholar, SID, Magiran, and Iran Doc as databases for Persian studies) were systematically searched from January 2010 to February 2020. To better identify appropriate studies, reference lists of relevant studies were searched. All potentially relevant abstracts and full-text were screened by two independent reviewers. Disagreements between two reviewers that could not be resolved were resolved via arbitration or consultation of a third author.

SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK

From 225 articles included in this review, 16 research articles met our inclusion criteria. Most of the articles were dedicated to negative health outcomes related to child marriage. Ten studies addressed the program of overcoming the Child marriage and six studies reported challenges of it. Although, many studies have shown the efficacy of strategies to decline Child marriage. On the basis of the available evidence, it seems there are a number of obstacles to end Child marriage. To delineate the most effective strategy to end Child marriage is required further research.

Human health risk assessment for exposure to BTEXN in an urban aquifer using deterministic and probabilistic methods: A case study of Chennai city, India

The aquifer in Tondiarpet, Chennai, had been severely contaminated with petroleum fuels due to an underground pipeline leakage. Groundwater samples were analyzed quarterly for priority pollutants such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, and naphthalene (BTEXN) using purge and trap gas chromatography and mass spectrometer from 2016 to 2018. The maximum concentrations of BTEXN in groundwater at the site were found to be greater than the permissible limits significantly. Among the five sampling locations (MW1, MW2, MW3, MW4, and MW5), mean BTEXN levels were found to be higher near MW2, confirming the source location of petroleum leakage. Human health risk assessment was carried out using deterministic and probabilistic methods for exposure to BTEXN by oral and dermal exposure pathways. Risk analysis indicated that mean cancer and non-cancer risks were many times higher than the allowable limits of 1E-06 and 1 respectively in all age groups (children, teens, and adults), implying the adverse health effects. Oral exposure is predominately contributing (60-80%) to the total health risk in comparison to the dermal exposure route. Variability and uncertainty were addressed using the Monte Carlo simulations and the resultant minimum, maximum, 5th, 95th^, and mean percentile risks were predicted. Under the random exposure conditions to BTEXN, it was estimated that the risk would become unacceptable for >98.7% of the exposed population. Based on the sensitivity analysis, exposure duration, and ingestion rate are the crucial variables contributing significantly to the health risk. As part of the risk management, preliminary remediation goals for the study site were estimated, which require >99% removal of the BTEXN contamination for risk-free exposures. It is suggested that the residents of Tondiarpet shouldn't utilize the contaminated groundwater mainly for oral ingestion to lower the cancer incidence related to exposure to BTEXN.

Do the prevalence and correlates of adverse reproductive health outcomes differ by marriage cohorts? Evidence from a study of two marriage cohorts in Nigeria

The researchers examined the prevalence and correlates of adverse reproductive health outcomes among two cohorts of married women in Nigeria based on the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. A weighted sample size of 8,704 and 6,076 women were analyzed respectively for the child and delayed marriage cohorts. Our results showed differences in adverse reproductive health outcomes by marriage cohorts with higher prevalence in the child marriage cohort and also differences in the correlates of adverse reproductive health outcomes. Strategies to promote the uptake of reproductive health services, gender equity and women's empowerment across the different marriage cohorts are required.

Child marriage in Canada: A systematic review

Child marriage, defined by the United Nations as marriage before the age of 18, is considered a violation of human rights with negative consequences for girls' health. We systematically reviewed existing academic literature and news media to learn what is known about the frequency of child marriage in Canada and its effects on health. Approximately 1% of 15-19-year-olds in Canada were married or in common law unions in 2016. News reports document cases of child marriage among religious minority communities but no nationwide estimates of the frequency of marriage before the age of 18 were identified. Sources consistently show girls are more likely to marry as teens than boys. Information on married teens between 15 and 19 years of age suggests similarities in marriage patterns among this age group in Canada and child marriage practices globally. Further research is needed to measure Canada's progress toward eliminating child marriage.

Determinants of early marriage among married women in Injibara town, north West Ethiopia: community-based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Early marriage is occurred when one or both of the spouses are below the age of 18 years at the time of their first marriage. It is one of the major traditional practices in developing counties particularly in Ethiopia; which has significant physical, intellectual, psychological and emotional effects and reduces educational opportunities and the chance for personal growth for both boys and girls. Even though this traditional practice was the common cultural events in the study area, there is no prior study on the magnitude and its determinant factors. Hence, the study was aimed to determine the prevalence and determinant factors of early marriage among married women in Injibara town, North West Ethiopia.

METHODS

A Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from September to December 2018. A total of 373 women were included in the study. A multistage sampling procedure was applied to select the study participants. Data analysis was done by using SPSS versions 23. Both descriptive & analytical statistics were computed. Statistical significance was considered at P < 0.05 and the strength of association were assessed by using adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval.

RESULT

The prevalence of early marriage was 167(44.8%). The minimum and maximum ages at first marriage were 9 and 23 years respectively. Non-formal educational level of the father [Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR) =2.32; 95%CI = 1.33-4.05], family's average monthly income <1000 Ethiopian birr [AOR = 2.32, 95%CI = 1.27-4.24], family size ≥7 [AOR = 3.59, 95%CI = 1.94-6.63] and non-formal education level of the respondents [AOR = 5.16; 95%CI = 2.87-9.28] were found to be associated with early marriage.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of early marriage was high in Injibara town, Ethiopia. Factors that tend to facilitate early marriage in this town include family income, family size, educational level of the father and that of the respondent. Improving on the strategies that promote formal education will reduce the level of early marriage in Injibara town, Ethiopia.