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Zambia: child marriage evidence profiles (october 2022), attachments.

High-quality data and evidence on child marriage prevention and response is essential in informing efforts to end child marriage in Zambia. A global review of child marriage evidence over the last 20 years covering English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese identified just 51 publications with a focus on Zambia. In other countries, such as Ethiopia, 117 publications on child marriage were identified highlighting the smaller pool of evidence in Zambia. Still, the implementation of select programmes in the region and detailed in this brief have contributed to understandings of the practice in Zambia.

EVIDENCE OVERVIEW

With regard to drivers of child marriage, recent work by Muthengi et al. identified that the most common reasons given by girls for marrying or cohabiting were poverty and pregnancy. Programme baselines such as the ‘Yes, I Do programme’ in eastern Zambia reveal a high prevalence of teenage pregnancy and child marriage among young women, with marriage often a common response to pregnancy. A qualitative study on child marriage, early pregnancy and schooling in rural Zambia describes bride-wealth as another driver of child marriage.

Of the intervention-focused literature in Zambia, most draw from the following programmes:

Yes, I Do Programme

The Champions of Change (CoC) intervention was implemented and monitored by Plan Zambia over two years in Chadiza and Petauke districts in the Eastern province of Zambia. An endline evaluation found that the CoC intervention has shown changing attitudes and perceptions towards gender equality, as well as changing social norms. However, the study also found no change and negative changes regarding various statements on gender equality, including on sexual and reproductive health and violence.

Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme

This study measured improved sexual and reproductive health knowledge, improved self-efficacy, and decreased transactional sex, yet found no long-term effects on pregnancy/birth, marriage, sexual debut, equitable gender attitudes or experience of physical or sexual violence.

Stamping Out and Preventing GenderBased Violence (STOP GBV) Programme**

This intervention was implemented over six years between 2012 and 2018. The STOP GBV programme has established 16 One Stop Centers, built the capacity of close to 4,000 police and judiciary staff on GBV prevention and response, facilitated the court processing of 2,872 GBV cases and supported more than 70,000 GBV survivors with medical, psycho-social and paralegal counselling. The programme has also engaged with traditional leaders, 270 of whom have denounced the practice of child marriage in their chiefdoms.

The Transfer Project

This study examined the impact of two governmentrun unconditional cash transfer programmes on early marriage/cohabitation and fertility among poor, rural youth in Zambia. While the study found strong impacts on poverty and schooling, there was limited impact on safe transition outcomes, including delayed pregnancy and marriage.

Research Initiative to Support the Empowerment of Girls (RISE) Programme

This programme, implemented from 2016 to 2018, involved cash transfers and community dialogue components and was found to increase school retention. The programme also found that acceptability of a cash transfer programme was increased by linking the benefits to girls to other family members.

UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End

Child Marriage programming in Zambia Programme activities has included establishment of safe spaces for in- and out-of-school adolescents, where adolescents are taught financial literacy and life skills. The programme also supports schools to run clubs that teach life skills for girls and boys, and career clubs for girls to encourage and support secondary education completion. For a detailed description of the Global Programme in Zambia and results, refer to the Zambia country profile.

GAPS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Less is known on what works to prevent child marriage and respond to the needs of married girls and boys in Zambia. Nkwemu et al. explored the experiences of school-going adolescent mothers in Lusaka. Interventions addressing the needs of married girls can provide rare insight into the marital relationship, including power dynamics which influence key health and social behaviours and outcomes, such as use of family planning, mental health, safety, etc. Addressing violence experienced by married girls is another area of research and programmatic neglect.

For more information on global evidence gaps and priorities for the Global Programme to End Child Marriage, refer to the Phase II Research Strategy.

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Individual and Community-level factors associated with early marriage in Zambia: a mixed effect analysis

Affiliations.

• 1 Department of Population Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia. [email protected].
• 2 Demography and Population Studies Programme, Schools of Public Health and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. [email protected].
• 3 Department of Population Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.
• 4 Department of Development Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.
• PMID: 36650478
• PMCID: PMC9843915
• DOI: 10.1186/s12905-023-02168-8

Background: Child marriage has long been a public health concern around the world, because it has the potential to deprive adolescent girls of their sexual reproductive health rights and limits their ability to reach their full potential in life. The prevalence of child marriage has been consistently higher in sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere. However, fewer studies have explored the influence of both individual and community-level influences on early marriage in sub-Saharan Africa. This study, therefore, examined individual and community-level factors associated with child marriages in Zambia.

Methods: Data came from the Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS) conducted in 2007, 2013-14 and 2018. A pooled weighted sample of 9990 women aged 20-29 years was used in the analysis. Stata software version 17 was used to perform statistical analysis, taking into account complex survey design. The association between individual- and community- level factors and early marital behavior was assessed using multilevel logistic regression models.

Results: The prevalence of child marriage among women aged 20-29 was 44.4 percent (95% CI: 42.1, 46.7) in 2018, declining from 51.5 percent (95% CI: 48.9, 54.0) in 2007. Women with secondary or higher level of education [aOR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.26-0.49] and [aOR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.03-0.18] and those whose age at first birth was (15-19 year) or (20-29 years) were associated with less likelihood of experiencing child marriage. Communities with a high percentage of women who gave birth at a young age [aOR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.15-1.62] were more likely to experience child marriage. Individual and community-level characteristics accounted for 35% of the overall variations in communities' likelihood of experiencing early marriage. Even after controlling for both individual and community-level influences, the intra-class correlation revealed that around 4.5 percent of the overall variations remained unexplained.

Conclusion: Prevalence of child marriage has reduced over the years but is still high in Zambia. Both individual and community- level factors influenced child marriage in Zambia. There is a need to strengthen strategies that keep girls in school to delay their exposure to early sexual debut and child marriage. Designing of reproductive health interventions in the country should consider integration of community factors such as economic insecurity and access to reproductive health information.

Keywords: Early marriage; Mixed effect analysis; Reproductive health; Women; Zambia.

© 2023. The Author(s).

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Individual and Community-level factors associated with early marriage in Zambia: a mixed effect analysis

Million phiri.

1 Department of Population Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

2 Demography and Population Studies Programme, Schools of Public Health and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Emmanuel Musonda

Liness shasha, vincent kanyamuna.

3 Department of Development Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia

Musonda Lemba

Associated data.

Datasets used in our study are publicly available at DHS program website ( https://dhsprogram.com/ ).

Child marriage has long been a public health concern around the world, because it has the potential to deprive adolescent girls of their sexual reproductive health rights and limits their ability to reach their full potential in life. The prevalence of child marriage has been consistently higher in sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere. However, fewer studies have explored the influence of both individual and community-level influences on early marriage in sub-Saharan Africa. This study, therefore, examined individual and community-level factors associated with child marriages in Zambia.

Data came from the Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS) conducted in 2007, 2013–14 and 2018. A pooled weighted sample of 9990 women aged 20–29 years was used in the analysis. Stata software version 17 was used to perform statistical analysis, taking into account complex survey design. The association between individual- and community- level factors and early marital behavior was assessed using multilevel logistic regression models.

The prevalence of child marriage among women aged 20–29 was 44.4 percent (95% CI: 42.1, 46.7) in 2018, declining from 51.5 percent (95% CI: 48.9, 54.0) in 2007. Women with secondary or higher level of education [aOR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.26–0.49] and [aOR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.03–0.18] and those whose age at first birth was (15–19 year) or (20–29 years) were associated with less likelihood of experiencing child marriage. Communities with a high percentage of women who gave birth at a young age [aOR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.15–1.62] were more likely to experience child marriage. Individual and community-level characteristics accounted for 35% of the overall variations in communities' likelihood of experiencing early marriage. Even after controlling for both individual and community-level influences, the intra-class correlation revealed that around 4.5 percent of the overall variations remained unexplained.

Prevalence of child marriage has reduced over the years but is still high in Zambia. Both individual and community- level factors influenced child marriage in Zambia. There is a need to strengthen strategies that keep girls in school to delay their exposure to early sexual debut and child marriage. Designing of reproductive health interventions in the country should consider integration of community factors such as economic insecurity and access to reproductive health information.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-023-02168-8.

Introduction

Child marriage, defined as a legal or informal union between two people before they turn 18 years old, is a practice that disproportionately affects girls and is linked to several unfavorable social and developmental outcomes [ 1 – 5 ]. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals acknowledges that Child marriage has long been a public health concern around the world [ 6 – 8 ]. This is because it has the potential to deprive adolescent girls of their sexual and reproductive health rights. Furthermore, child marriage can limit their ability to reach their full potential and enjoy their human rights as guaranteed by several international treaties [ 1 , 9 – 12 ]. Child marriage remains a burden in developing regions with sub-Saharan Africa having the highest prevalence of 37%, South East Asia at 30% and Latin America at 21% [ 1 , 6 , 13 , 14 ]. According to Girls Not Brides in 2018, one out of every five girls is married before the age of 18, with Africa accounting for roughly 67–76 percent of child marriages [ 7 , 15 ]. Apart from Africa, Asia has a high rate of child marriage, with around 46 percent of women aged 20–24 in South Asia marrying before the age of 18 [ 16 , 17 ]. Despite global declines in child marriage rates, its persistence in particular places has led to a growing acknowledgment that ending the practice requires a detailed knowledge of the factors that drive it [ 18 , 19 ]. Several studies on child marriage have revealed a number of socially complex, interconnected, and context-specific variables that vary in importance across and even within nations [ 1 , 11 , 13 ].

The major drivers of child marriage have been conceptualized as follows: poverty and economic factors; lack of opportunity for girls beyond marriage; fear of pregnancy/girls' sexuality; social norms; and a lack of agencies among girls themselves [ 1 , 13 , 18 , 20 – 22 ]. Literature has shown that girls who marry early are more likely to experience violence, abuse, and forced sexual relations because of unequal power relations [ 23 – 25 ]. Young girls are also more vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (including HIV) [ 26 – 28 ]. Girls’ education, health, and psychologic well-being of females, as well as the health of their offspring, are all negatively impacted by child marriage [ 29 ].

Most existing research seeking to explain why child marriage persists has focused on understanding how factors manifest at the individual and household levels. In recent years, there has also been a growing interest in understanding and changing drivers that sustain the practice at the community level [ 22 , 25 ]. However, few studies have explored how the drivers of child marriage manifest across both micro (individual and household) and macro (community) levels, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) [ 21 , 30 , 31 ]. Understanding the intersection of drivers across levels and to what extent drivers work separately or jointly to sustain the practice is critical for designing and implementing effective policies and programs aimed at preventing child marriage. However, we are still learning about factors that influence early marital decision making, particularly about girls’ beliefs and circumstances and about the social context in which they live [ 32 – 34 ].

Even though literature shows that the environment has a significant impact on marital and reproductive health behaviour of young individuals, mainly due to peer pressure and other social factors, no study has attempted to examine both individual and community level factors associated with child marriage in Zambia. An earlier study by Mulenga and others [ 35 ], conducted in Zambia found that residence, age at first sex, education level of women and their partners, and family size had a significant influence on prevalence of child marriage. The study, however, ignored the influence of community-level factors on child marriage. There is a paucity of knowledge on how community-level factors influence early marriage in Zambia. In view of this, we conducted this study to bridge the knowledge gap that exists in the literature. Examining both individual and community-level factors associated with child marriage is an important step to inform relevant government and non-governmental organizations to have an in-depth understanding of factors that explain why girls fall into a trap of child marriages in Zambia.

Despite many efforts by government and stakeholders to address social and economic factors that predispose young girls to marry early, the prevalence of child marriage is still high in Zambia. In 2013, 31.4% of women aged 20–24 reported to have been married before age 18 [ 1 , 9 , 10 ]. The prevalence is significantly higher in rural areas than in urban areas [ 9 , 36 , 37 ]. We therefore conducted this study to investigate individual and community-factors associated with child marriage in Zambia. The study also sought to establish if there are community-level variations in the prevalence of child marriage. There is increasing evidence in the literature that the environment has a significant impact on young people's reproductive behaviour [ 38 – 42 ] . Therefore, the application of the multilevel analysis model in this study allowed for in-depth analysis of the effects of both individual and community variables on women’s decision about early marriage. Our study has provided an opportunity to generate information useful for shaping and redesigning of existing policies and interventions aimed at eliminating early marriage in the country. The findings might inform reproductive health policies and programming in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Data source

Secondary data from the Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) conducted in 2007, 2013 and 2018 was used [ 43 ]. Specifically, the study used the women’s individual recode files (IR) which contain the responses of women aged 15–49 who were enrolled in surveys. The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) is a nationwide cross-sectional survey that is usually carried out across low-and middle-income countries every five-years [ 44 ] and collects data on several indicators such related to demographic and health of a country. The DHS has been an essential source of country level data on issues surrounding sexual and reproductive health indicators in low-and middle-income countries as it gathers data on several indicators such as marriage, sexual-activity, fertility, fertility-preferences and family-planning [ 44 ]. Stratified, two-stage sampling approach is usually employed in selecting the sample for the DHS. A pooled sample of 9990 women aged 20–29 years, who were ever-married prior to survey and had complete information on reported age at first marriage were included in the analysis. The age group 20 to 24 years old is the typical age range for researching child marriage among women who have ever been married [ 1 , 11 , 17 ]. We used the broader age range of the ever-married women 20 to 29 years old for analyses of the data samples because the age sample for the group 20–24 years was not sufficient for our analysis. Because age at first marriage was measured retrospectively, we excluded all teenage women aged 15–19 years from the analysis. This is due to the fact that not all members of this cohort had a chance to experience child marriage as they had not yet completed childhood age. The selection criteria for the study sample size for the three DHS’s is described in Fig.  1 .

Sample selection and inclusion criteria

Outcome measure

The outcome variable for this study was age at marriage. Age at first marriage is defined as “age at which woman or a man was first married or stated cohabiting with partner” usually age at first marriage is presented as; less than 18 years or 18 years and above [ 8 , 9 , 35 ]. During the DHS survey, all women who reported being ever married prior to the survey were asked to state the age at which they got married or started cohabiting with a partner. The variable was collected and recorded as continuous data. To facilitate binary analysis, we then recoded the variable into two categories: (i) ‘less than 18 years’ and; (ii) 18 years or above. A binary outcome variable was then classified as “0” representing age at first marriage/cohabitation of 18 years or above and “1” representing age at first marriage below 18 years, which was treated as child marriage.

Independent variables

Based on exiting literature [ 30 , 34 , 35 , 45 ], a number of explanatory variables were selected, these included: age of a woman; age at first sex; education; literacy; residence; region; wealth status; employment status; exposure to family planning messages; age at first birth; gave birth in the last five years; age of partner; education of partner; and employment of partner. These variables were grouped into individual and community-level variables.

Individual level factors

Individual-level factors included age of a woman categorized as [ 20 – 29 ]; education level (none, primary, secondary and higher); literacy (illiterate and literate); age at first sex (less than 15, 15–19, 20–24 and 25–29); age at firth birth (less than 15, 15–19 and 20–29); age of a partner at the time of the survey (less than 25, 25–29, 30–34, and 35 +); wealth status (poor, middle and rich). Other individual variables included employment status (not working and working); education level of partner (none, primary, secondary, and higher); partner’s employment status (not working and working); gave birth last five years (no and yes); media exposure (no and yes); and desired family size (less than 4 children, 4–5 and 6 + children).

Community-level factors

The aggregation of socioeconomic and demographic characteristics (education, employment, wealth status, age at first birth) and behaviour-related factors (fertility desire, exposure to FP messages) from individual-level to community-level was done to study these variables at the community or neighbourhood level. These community variables were chosen based on their significance in previous research [ 21 , 30 ]. A community was defined as the primary sampling unit (i.e., cluster) of the ZDHS’s. Household wealth, employment, women’s education, age at first birth, ideal number of children, and exposure to media FP messages were aggregated to a sampling unit to generate community level. The community-level factors, except for residence, were aggregated individual-level variables at the cluster level measured as average proportions classified into low, medium, and high levels for each variable for easy interpretation. The following categorisation was used to group the percentile into three discrete categories (low = “0–49 percent”; medium = “50–75 percent”; high = “75–100 percent”). A number of studies guided the construction of the indices and community variables used in this study [ 22 , 25 , 40 , 45 – 47 ].

Statistical analysis

Data analysis was done at three levels: descriptive, bivariate and multilevel using Stata version 17 software, with 5% level of significance. At the descriptive level, percent distributions of outcome indicators were presented. At the bivariate level, cross-tabulations with chi-square tests were used to analyse the association between child marriage and the selected independent variables. In order to assess the effects of several identified individual and community-level factors on child marriage in Zambia, a two-level multilevel binary logistic regression model was applied on a pooled data for all the three surveys phases. First level involved analysing data at the individual level and the second involved analysis at community level. The “melogit” command was used in Stata software to account for the clustering of the outcome variable within and across sampling clusters of the survey design. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were reported. Four multilevel logistic models were estimated. Model 1 included the outcome variable only in order to test the random variability in the intercept. Model 2 included the individual-level variables to examine women’s characteristics on early marriage experience while Model 3 examined the effect of community-level characteristics only; model 4 included both the individual and community-level factors. All covariates were included in the multilevel analyses regardless of level of significance at bivariate analysis. This is because all the variables in our study conceptual framework have been reported to significantly influence child marriage in prior studies [ 30 , 34 , 35 , 45 ].

The intra-class correlation (ICC) was used to understand variations of relationships between communities and the relative effect of community-level variables. ICC provides information on the share of variance at each level. The latent method was used to calculate the PVC at each level. It assumes a threshold model, approximating the level 1 variance by π 2 / 3 ( ≈ 3.29 ) [ 40 , 47 , 48 ]. To explain the heterogeneity in the probabilities of early marital experience, the Proportional Change in Variance (PCV) was computed for each model compared to the empty model. The PCV provided information on the share of variance for each model relative to model I. Aikake Information Criteria (AIC) were used to compare models and measure goodness of fit [ 40 , 47 ].The model with the lower Aikake Information Criteria (AIC) was considered being a better fit for the data. To assess multicollinearity among independent factors, the variance inflation factor (VIF) was used. There were no concerns with multicollinearity in any of the variables (all VIF < 5). The variance inflation factor values are presented in Additional file 1 : Table 1.

Ethical approval

The data analysed in this study is available in the public domain at ( https://dhsprogram.com/ ) Permission to use the data was obtained from the DHS program. All datasets used in this study did not contain any personal identification information from survey participants. The original Zambian DHS Biomarker and survey protocols were approved by Tropical Disease and Research Center (TDRC) and the Research Ethics Review Board of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Atlanta.

Sample description

A total of 9990 women were included in the analysis across the three ZDHS surveys. The majority, 44 percent, were from the 2013/14 ZDHS, while 34 percent were from the 2018 survey and 21 percent from the 2007 survey. Table ​ Table1 1 shows the distribution of women included in the analysis by background characteristics across the survey years. The distribution of respondents across ages shows that most of them (above 50 percent) were aged between 25 and 29 years in all the three surveys years. Rural and urban distribution showed that in all three survey years, 2007, 2013 and 2018, the majority of respondents were from rural areas (63 percent, 57 percent and 59 percent respectively). The provincial distribution shows that Lusaka had the highest proportion of women across the two survey years 2013 and 2018 (19 percent and 19 percent respectively) while Copperbelt (16 percent) had the highest proportion of women for the survey year 2007. Regarding the highest level of education majority of respondents had attained only primary school level education across the three survey years 2007, 2013 and 2018 (59 percent, 49 percent and 46 percent respectively). In terms of employment status, 56 percent in 2007, 54 percent in 2013 and 52 percent in 2018 were working.

Percent distribution of background characteristics of ever married young women (20–29 years), 2007–2018 DHS, Zambia

Table ​ Table1 1 further shows that in all survey years 2007, 2013 and 2018, most of the women had their first birth in the age group 15–19 (67 percent, 69 percent and 68 respectively). Majority of the women, ranging from 80 to 89 percent, had no exposure to family planning messages all survey years.

Table ​ Table2 2 shows the prevalence of child marriage according to different background characteristics of women. The trends and pattern show that over the years 2007 to 2018, the prevalence of child marriage reduced from 52 to 44 percent in Zambia. Bivariate analysis reveals that many socio-economic and demographic variables were consistently associated with child marriage ( p  < 0.001). The percentage of women who experienced child marriage was high in all the survey years among those aged 20–24 compared to those aged 25–29.

Percent distribution of bivariate analysis of child marriage prevalence among ever married women (20–29 years) by background characteristics, 2007–2018 DHS, Zambia

*** p  < 0.001; ** p  < 0.01; * p  < 0.05; Ns  Non-significant

Child marriage has been consistently high among women living in rural areas than among their counterparts living in urban areas. Results show that there has been a large decline in the prevalence of child marriage from 42 to 34 percent in urban areas compared decline observed in rural areas (57 percent to 52 percent) in the period 2007–2018. The provincial prevalence of child marriage in 2018 ranged from 32 percent on the Copperbelt to 57 percent in Eastern province. The prevalence of child marriage was high among women with no formal education across the three survey years ( p  < 0.001). Prevalence of child marriage in Zambia has been high among women with no formal or primary level of education).

Across all the three survey years, the prevalence of child marriage was observed to be high among women whose age at first sexual debut was below the age of 15. This prevalence increased from 66 to 70 percent in the period 2007–2018. Furthermore, our study results show a significant decline in prevalence among women coming from all income groups between 2007 and 2018. There was a slight decline in child marriage among women whose partner’s level of education was primary or secondary from 59 to 56 percent and 47 percent to 39 percent between 2007 and 2018, respectively.

Across the three surveys, the prevalence of child marriage was high among women who had no exposure to family planning messages: 55 percent, 50 percent and 47 percent, respectively. The study results also reveal that young women who preferred a large family size were more likely to marry early compared to their counterparts who preferred a low family size.

Factors associated with experience of early marriage

Modelling approaches (fixed effects).

Table ​ Table3 3 displays the measures of association from the multilevel binary logistic regression model of association between child marriage, individual, and community-level factors. Results of model IV which accounted for both individual and community-level factors, revealed that women with secondary education or higher were less likely to experience child marriage compared to those with no education. Women whose age at first sex was in age groups 15–19 and 20–24 years and those whose age at first birth was in the age group 15–19 and 20–29 years were equally less likely to experience child marriage compared to women who initiated sexual debut or had a first birth at before age 15. Furthermore, women whose partners’ education was secondary or higher were less likely to experience early marriage compared to those whose partners had no formal education. Women from communities with a moderate percentage of women belonging to poor households, from communities with a high percentage of women giving birth at a young age were more likely to experience child marriage compared with their defined counterparts who belonged to poor households and those from communities with low percentage of women giving birth at a young age, respectively. Although nearly all the covariates in the model were significant in the univariable models, very few remained significant after adjustment in the full multivariable model (Model IV).

Multilevel parameter estimates and adjusted odds of child marriage prevalence, DHS 2007 -2018

Model I contains no explanatory variables; Model II includes individual-level factors only; Model III includes community-level factors only; Model IV includes both individual-level and community-level factors

aOR adjusted odds ratio, CI Confidence internal, ICC Intraclass correlation coefficient, PCV Proportional change in variance, AIC Akaike information criterion

*** p < 0.001; ** p < 0.01; * p < 0.05

Modelling approaches (random effects)

Measures of variation for child marriage experience are presented in Table ​ Table3. 3 . In the null model, the use of multilevel modelling was justified by the significant variation in prevalence of child marriage (σ2 = 0.23, 95% CI 0.17–0.30). The ICC for the child marriage prevalence was 6.4% suggesting that variation in experience of child marriage across clusters may be attributed to other unobserved community-level characteristics. The final model (Model IV) reveals significant variances, showing the effects of community heterogeneity. Additionally, 35 percent of the variance in the odds of experiencing child marriage across communities were explained by both individual and community-level factors, as indicated by the Proportional Change in Variance (PCV) in model IV.

This study sought to analyse the influence of individual and community-level factors that explain child marriage in Zambia. The study applied a multilevel logistic regression models on the pooled 2007–2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys to better understand the factors that explain child marriage among women in Zambia. Disparities in experience of early marriage have been observed among different sociodemographic strata and understanding factors associated with early marriage in Zambia has a significant implication on strengthening sexual reproductive health policies and programmes to further reduce the prevalence of child marriage.

Our study reveals that the proportion of child marriage among women was 44.4 percent in 2018, declining from 51.5 percent in 2007. This decline could be attributed to the design and implementation of the national multi-sectoral strategy to end child marriage, which was launched in 2016 [ 9 ]. The study established that individual factors (education level of a woman, partners’ education, age at first sexual debut, age at first birth and desired family size) and community-level factors (poverty level, young age at first birth) were significantly associated with early marriage in Zambia. The high prevalence of child marriage remains a public health and social concerns to achievement of sustainable development goals on improving maternal health and women’s education. These results suggest urgent attention for strengthening sexual reproductive health policies and programming in Zambia. Conversely, the study has revealed that residence, household wealth status, employment status and other community-level factors had no effect on experience of child marriage among young women in Zambia. A similar study by Zegeye [ 45 ] found that apart from region, all community-level factors were not associated with an experience of child marriage in Mali.

In this analysis, women with secondary or higher level of were less likely to experience child marriage. This suggests that increasing schooling opportunities for women have a significant bearing on reducing the prevalence of child marriages in Zambia, because educated women have the potential to make an informed decision about marital behavior because of easy access to appropriate reproductive health information. Our finding is consistent with similar studies conducted in Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Nigeria [ 21 , 30 , 49 ] which also reported education as a significant factor in reducing exposure to early marriage. Additionally, women whose partners had secondary or higher education are less likely to experience early marriage compared to those whose partners had a lower level of education. This finding is similar to what was reported in previous studies [ 45 , 50 ].

Our findings revealed that women who delayed their first sexual debut were less likely to experience early marriage compared with those started having sexual intercourse early. This finding is consistent with a study conducted in Tanzania and Burkina Faso in which age at first sex was positively associated with early marriage [ 21 , 30 ]. Sexual behavior of women has shown to influence marital behavior in other settings. For instance, in Congo, women who started sexual debut before age 16 were three and a half times more at risk of early marriage than those who started having sexual intercourse after age 17 [ 51 ]. Our study found that women who started childbearing after age 14 were less likely to marry early. The variations in experience of early marriage according to different sexual reproductive behavior observed in this study underscore the need to strengthen comprehensive sexual reproductive education and contraceptive services in primary and secondary education curriculum to reduce child marriage in Zambia effectively.

The effects of community-level characteristics on child marriage have been well-documented [ 21 , 45 ]. Findings from the current analysis revealed that women from communities with a moderate percentage of women belonging to poor households and from communities with a high percentage of women giving birth at a younger age were more likely to experience child marriage compared to their defined counterparts. Women from poor households may have inadequate access to sexual reproductive health information and services. Additionally, these women may also have less access to education, hence being less likely to comprehend health messages leading to a low understanding of consequences of early marriage and reduced demand of reproductive health services [ 33 , 52 ]. Similarly, women from well-to-do communities are expected to better have chances of accessing education and sexual reproductive health information. As such, these women are empowered to make an informed decision about health and social consequences of early marriages.

Differences in experience of child marriage were observed according to distinct individual and community factors. Therefore, increasing access to education for female adolescents and women and strengthening sexual reproductive programme interventions will be key to addressing the problem of child marriage in Zambia. As evidenced by the results, employed women were less likely to have experienced child marriage, suggesting that empowering women may go a long way in addressing child marriage. There could be unobserved or unmeasured community-level factors that influenced early marital behavior. This suggests that there could be factors operating at the community-level, not included in the current analysis, which may be associated with early marital behavior in Zambia. These may include, but are not limited to, cultural differences between communities (that may ultimately influence child marriage), and community outreach, engagement, and mobilization efforts. Therefore, sexual reproductive programs need to be embedded in early school curriculum and a thorough community profiling. Furthermore, interventions to curb child marriage require approaches that will strengthen community engagement among relevant stakeholders such as civic leader, traditional leaders, community leaders and religious institutions.

Although the study has provided useful findings that have the potential to inform strengthening of existing sexual reproductive policies and programming targeting at changing marital behaviour among adolescents and women in Zambia. Designing of tailor-made interventions to address the problem will require a detailed decomposition analysis of both individual and community-level factors to delineate factors that have contributed to the observed reduction in prevalence of child marriage.

Study strengths and limitations

The study had a number of limitations. First, because of the cross-sectional nature of the DHS data, causality cannot be inferred from this study. Second, the outcome of interest child marriage was measured retrospectively using the reported age at first marriage for the ever-married women. But the independent factors are with reference to the time when the survey was conducted, meaning that there is a possibility of a variance between the factors at the time of marriage and those at the time of the survey. There is also a possibility of recall bias, since the DHS participants were asked to report events that happened in the past. Since the study comprised a nationally representative sample of Zambian women, the current findings can apply to the entire population of women in Zambia. The hierarchical nature of the DHS dataset allowed for exploration of community effects, which may have an influence on sexual and reproductive health and family planning programming in Zambia. The study assessed a wide range of factors to strengthen the associations observed.

The study has established that the prevalence of child marriage is still high in Zambia, even though there has been a reduction in the trends over the years. In Zambia, we have observed that the factors that influence child marriage operate at both individual and community-level level. Sexual and reproductive health programmes should be strengthened, especially among communities with less access to education in order to improve reproductive health outcomes, such as age at first sexual intercourse and age at first birth among women. Further research is needed to have a better understanding of some findings reported in this study, as well as to learn more about the socio-cultural and religious influences that may explain some of the unaccounted for community effects on child marriage.

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the Zambia Statistics Agency, Ministry of Health, ICF and other partners involved in Zambia DHS program.

Abbreviations

Author contributions.

MP developed the concept for this study, wrote background and discussion sections. EM and MP wrote the methods section. EM performed data analysis. LS wrote the interpretation text for the manuscript. ML and VK performed overall review and editing of the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

No funding was received.

Availability of data and materials

Declarations.

Because the data used in the analysis came from secondary sources that are already in the public domain, the study did not require approval from an ethics body. However, all necessary procedures and guidelines were followed to access the DHS datasets from the DHS program. The DHS protocols ensured that all ethical process were followed before commencement of data collection processes in Zambia. All participants older than 18 years who were enrolled in the DHS were required to give their informed consent during enumeration. Additionally, parents or guardians of all participants aged 15 to 17 gave consent before the legal minors were asked for their assent.

Not applicable.

Authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

• Systematic Review
• Open access
• Published: 20 February 2023

Prevalence and factors associated with adolescent pregnancies in Zambia: a systematic review from 2000–2022

• Gift Malunga 1 ,
• Sidney Sangong 2 ,
• Farrukh Ishaque Saah 3 , 4 &
• Luchuo Engelbert Bain 4 , 5  

Archives of Public Health volume  81 , Article number:  27 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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Adolescent pregnancy increases risk of short- and long-term adverse social and health outcomes for the adolescent mother and child. Zambia has high prevalence rates of adolescent pregnancy. However, the risk factors are varied and in need of further review and research. The study accordingly reviewed the prevalence and factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in Zambia.

This systematic review was conducted following the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. The review included original peer-reviewed research articles published from 2000 onwards in English, retrieved from Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, and African Journals Online databases. Thematic synthesis was used in the analysis of the data extracted from the included studies.

Six research studies carried out in Zambia (two quantitative, two qualitative, and two mixed methods) were reviewed and included. Prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia ranged from 29 to 48%. Additionally, it was found that 29.1% of the country’s adolescents, nationally, had given birth as of 2018. Factors at an individual’s level such as early or child marriage, exposure to media, knowledge about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and contraception, contraceptive use, as well as risky sexual behaviours were found to be significantly associated with adolescent pregnancy. Peer pressure, educational attainment, household wealth, and the power dynamics of the household head were identified as the major socio-economic factors alongside socio-cultural, gender and sexual norms amongst other environmental and contextual factors. Policy level factors identified were lack and limited access to SRH information and services by adolescents, including an enabling legal environment.

From the review, it was abundantly clear that a combination of individual, interpersonal, environmental, and an enabling legal/policy level factors significantly contribute to the high levels of adolescent pregnancy. There is a paucity of empirical research on the prevalence and determinants of adolescent pregnancy, which suggests an imperative need for large multi-site mixed methods studies to properly explore these and other determinants on a national scale, as well as the long-term implications of these pregnancies on adolescent mothers and babies. Multifaceted and multisectoral interventions which include improved access to education, economic empowerment, addressing gender and socio-cultural norms, should be implemented having due regard to the socio-cultural context which should ride on strong political will, failing which adolescent girls in Zambia will definitely be left behind.

Plain English summary

Pregnancy increases risk of adverse short- and long-term outcomes for adolescent mothers and their babies. Adolescent pregnancy is significantly high in Zambia. However, the risk factors are varied and in need of further review and research. Using a systematic review process, we identify the trends and factors that influence adolescent pregnancy in Zambia from research articles published since 2000. We found that prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia was between 29%-48% and that nationally, 29.1% of the country’s adolescents had given birth as of 2018. Factors identified as influencing adolescent pregnancy in Zambia were analysed at four levels: 1) individual factors such as early or child marriage, exposure to media, knowledge about sexual and reproductive health and contraception, contraceptive use, as well as risky sexual behaviours; 2) interpersonal level factors such as peer pressure, educational attainment, household wealth, influence of male or female headed households, and family members; 3) community/environmental factors such as socio-cultural, gender and sexual norms; and 4) an enabling policy/legal environment covering mostly access to SRH information and services. It was emphasized that various stakeholders should deliberately collaborate to address these issues at all four levels using interventions that are socio-culturally suitable and should be supported by strong political will at policy and implementation levels to facilitate better access to education, improve economic empowerment of girls, review of gender and dysfunctional cultural norms and practices, amongst other considerations.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Adolescence is the transitional period from childhood to adulthood, accompanied by physical, psychological and emotional changes [ 1 , 2 ]. Young girls often transition from childhood to adulthood with the onset of menarche, which marks the beginning of the initiation process in readiness for marriage [ 3 , 4 ] among certain cultures in Zambia. During this period, many young people begin experimenting and engaging in sexual activities. Adolescent pregnancy, defined as pregnancy in girls aged between 10 and 19 years of age [ 5 ] is often an unfortunate offshoot of such sexual experimentation.

Adolescent pregnancy remains a key public health and development concern globally, especially in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICS). It is estimated that approximately 16 million girls aged 15–19 years, as well as an additional one (1) million below 15 years, give birth in LMICs [ 5 ]. Adolescent pregnancy has detrimental and far-reaching consequences for the majority of adolescent girls – for the rest of their lives –as it perpetuates poverty, deprives them of education, increases health risks and girl-child vulnerabilities while at the same time putting them in harm’s way and exposing them to violence [ 6 ]. In the result, adolescent pregnancy may have negative and unintended knock-on effects on many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including; goal one (ensuring no poverty), goal two (zero hunger), goal three (good health and wellbeing including sexual and reproductive health), goal four (access to quality education), goal five (gender equality), and goal ten (reduction of inequality) [ 7 ].

The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Africa remains rather unacceptably high. For instance, a recent systematic review indicated that the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy was 18.8% in Africa as a whole, and 19.3% in sub-Saharan Africa [ 8 ]. Zambia, as indicated below, undoubtedly has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy prevalence rates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), conceivably with a significant attenuating effect on socio-economic development, riding on the fact that adolescents are a significant age group constituting 24% of the total population of Zambia [ 9 ]. Over the last five years, the rate of adolescent pregnancy has remained very high at 29.2%, with at least 35% of young girls in rural areas giving birth before, or by, the age of 18 years according to the 2018 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) [ 10 ]. There are significant rural–urban variations in adolescent pregnancies in Zambia, with rural areas having an average of 37% compared to 17% in urban areas [ 10 ]. These averages potentially mask realities on the ground as some rural areas have adolescent pregnancy rates as high as 42.5% and 39.5% in Southern and Eastern Provinces respectively. Adolescent pregnancy is partly responsible for the high total fertility rate of 4.7 per woman and rapid population growth rate of 2.8% thus contributing about 20% of the total fertility rate [ 11 ].

Child marriages deprive adolescent girls of their sexual and reproductive health rights and curtails opportunities for them to realize their full potential and enjoyment of human rights entitlements as enshrined in various international treaties [ 6 ]. Child marriage prevalence in Zambia is one of the highest in the world, reducing marginally from 31.7% in 2014 to 29% in 2018 [ 12 ]. It is reported that 16.5% of girls aged 15–19 are married, while 31.4% of those aged 20–24 years got married before the age of 18 [ 13 ]. Major drivers of child marriage in Zambia include high poverty levels, limited access to quality education, limited life choices, and poor access to sexual and reproductive health services [ 14 ]. It is culturally accepted for marriages to take place between adolescents, to have intergenerational marriages, marriages of rectification of ‘shameful or dishonourable situations such as teenage pregnancy [ 6 ]. It has also been demonstrated that in some African patriarchal societies, power dynamics at play tend to reinforce child marriages [ 15 , 16 ]. In order to protect girls’ rights and achieve progress towards national development, the Zambian government has prioritized ending child marriages through legal interventions and campaigns [ 6 ] anchored on the power of incumbency as the President of Zambia, H.E Hakainde Hichelema is the current African Union champion on ending child marriages.

The factors pertaining to poignant issues of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia are multifaceted, which suggests the need for multisector interventions to ameliorate the prevailing challenges, Unravelling and understanding these factors is key to the design and implementation of policies and interventions aimed at curbing adolescent pregnancy. This review aimed to assess the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy with recourse to Bronfenbrenner’s Socio-ecological Model (SEM) as the main conduit towards systematically identifying critical factors impacting adolescent pregnancy. The SEM is a pivotal theoretical framework which anchors robust examinations, investigations and research endeavours prescribed by the multiple factors at different sociodemographic levels that are associated with adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH).

Study design and search strategy

This systematic review was conducted following the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines [ 17 ]. We combined text words and medical subject headings such as pregnancy OR birth OR delivery with adolescent OR teen to search Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, and African Journals Online from the database inception to 10 October 2021. The reference lists of eligible full texts were hand searched to retrieve articles missed during the search.

Study selection

Primary studies (both qualitative and quantitative) that reported, or contained relevant data, on the prevalence and factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in Zambia were considered for inclusion in this review. The study excluded reviews, editorials, case reports, and case series with fewer than 30 participants. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are presented in Table 1 . We exported citations retrieved from database searches to EndNote X9 for removal of duplicates, and the (re)-duplicated records were uploaded to Rayyan QCRI for screening based on title and abstract.

Outcome measure

Adolescent pregnancy was defined as pregnancy or childbirth occurring in women less than 20 years old. This included self-report or evidence (record) of childbirth at a health facility by women aged less than 20 years. The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy was calculated as the number of women who become pregnant or had a child while they were less than 20 years old.

The second outcome of this study focused on factors influencing adolescent pregnancy. Factors associated with adolescent pregnancy, in the quantitative study conducted, were determined from the p-value less than 0.05 for the statistic from the final inferential analysis carried out. Themes related to factors with a bearing to adolescent pregnancy identified from the findings of the included qualitative studies were collated.

Quality assessment and risk of bias

Quality assessment of the six (6) papers was carried out using Sirriyeh et al.’s tool for quality assessment of studies with diverse designs (QATSDD) [ 18 ]. The use of this tool also allows for comparisons of the qualities of quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods papers within the same domain field of study. Two authors (FIS and LEB) independently assessed the included studies and where disagreements were encountered, a third author resolved this through a third assessment informed by discussions held. The tool awards quality score on a four-point scale from 0 to 3 with accompanying guidance notes for using the scoring criteria (qualitative study (14), quantitative study (14), and mixed methods (16)) [ 18 ]. The criteria included a theoretical framework, a statement of aims and objectives, a description of the research setting, sample size in relation to analysis, representativeness, sample size, data collection procedures, rationale for choice of data collection tool, recruitment data, statistical assessment of reliability and validity of tool (quantitative only), fitness between stated research question and method of data collection (quantitative only), stated research question and format and content of data collection tool (qualitative only), stated research question and method of analysis, justification for selected analytical method, reliability of analytical process assessment (qualitative only), and user involvement in design, and discussion of strengths and limitations [ 18 ].

Each research paper was awarded a score per criterion and index scores generated. The total quality scores of the included studies were computed in percentage using the expected total scores (42 for quantitative and qualitative studies and 48 for mixed methods studies). Percentage scores greater than 50% were designated as high while those less than or equal to 50% were graded low-quality.

Data extraction and analysis

Two authors independently extracted data on the surname of the first author, year of publication, and determinants of adolescent pregnancy. The data extraction tool contained information on the author and year of publication, study aim, study design, study area and province, sample size, study population, and factors associated with adolescent pregnancy. A thematic synthesis was adopted in this review. The analysis of the factors influencing adolescent pregnancy was based on themes from the SEM. As such the themes for determinants of influence on adolescent pregnancy were categorized into individual (for example, exposure to media, and knowledge on use of contraceptives), interpersonal/socio-economic (for example, educational status, household wealth), and policy /legal framework (for example, knowledge of and access to sexual reproductive health services) factors. Bronfenbrenner’s model is used because it allows for an assessment of all possible factors that contribute to a phenomenon, addressing the issue as resulting from influences of multifaceted and multilevel factors [ 19 ].

Search results

A total of 3,452 papers were initially accessed from various electronic database searches and digital library catalogues, however 2,665 research had to be eliminated since they were duplicates. The remaining articles’ titles and abstracts were then evaluated, and 504 studies were reviewed and removed because they were not germane to the study. On the basis of the established inclusion and exclusion criteria, the eligibility of the remaining five (5) full-text publications was assessed. From snowballing through references of eligible articles, one (1) study was further assessed and included. Thus, in the final analysis, only the six papers that met the eligibility requirements were included (Fig.  1 ).

PRISMA flow of the search strategy

Overview of included studies

Of the 6 studies retained in the final review, two (2) were qualitative, two (2) were mixed methods and two (2) were cross-sectional. The studies were carried out in the following Provinces of Zambia: Southern (2), Central (2), Eastern (1), North-Western, as well as in Lusaka (2) and Copperbelt (1) while two used national-level data from the Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS). All the six studies in the provinces showed high quality ranging from lowest 54.7% [ 20 ] and 76.2% [ 21 ] (Table 2 ). Guided by Wado et al.’s [ 21 ] study, all the five did not have explicit theoretical frameworks. Additionally, all the six studies did not provide any justification for the choice of data collection tools and all the quantitative and mixed methods studies did not assess statistical reliability and validity of the tools, which could be due to the use of secondary data for some of the studies [ 21 , 22 ]. Such studies did not select the data collection tools and conducted their own data collection. With the exception of Svanemyr’s [ 23 ] study, all the other studies did not have user involvement in the study’s design.

Prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia

The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy ranged from 29% in the study using the 2014 ZDHS [ 21 ] to 48% in a study in Petauke, Chadiza, and Katete districts in Eastern province [ 24 ]. Additionally, prevalence of adolescent motherhood ranged from 20.81% in the Zambezi district, North-Western province [ 26 ] to 23.1% in the study using 2014 ZDHS data [ 22 ].

The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia continues on an upward trajectory according to Zambia’s recent Demographic and Health Surveys. For instance, the total adolescent pregnancy rate declined from 33.8% in 1992 to 30.7% in 1996, then increased to 31.6% in 2002. Table 3 shows an increase from 28.5% in 2014 to 29.2% in 2018 [ 10 ]. The Southern (42.5%), Western (41.2%), Eastern (39.5%), North Western (35.7%), and Central (30.6%) provinces recorded higher prevalence than the national average [ 10 ].

Prevalence was also observed to be positively correlated with increasing age, occasioning a distinct possibility of increasing vulnerability to risky sexual behaviours on the part of adolescents [ 1 ]. We observed a high prevalence among those in rural areas compared to those in urban areas which is indicative of rural–urban disparities from 1992 to 2018. Adolescents in urban areas may have access to improve economic opportunities and social services including SRH services and information compared to those in rural settings.

Also, prevalence of adolescent pregnancy was observed to have decreased with increasing levels of education with the trend showing increasing pregnancy for adolescents with primary and secondary education from 1992 to 2018 and decreasing for those with no formal education (Table 3 ). The level of education is a key determinant of adolescent pregnancy, with prevalence decreasing with increasing level of education. It is, however, a matter of concern that between 1992 and 2018, the teenage pregnancy rates among students in secondary school remained fairly constant (21.2% in 1992 and 22.2% in 2018). It might be of interest to understand reasons for this stagnation, as well as the comprehensive sexuality education packages in schools. This means that increasing access to education at all levels will help limit adolescent pregnancy [ 23 ].

Factors associated with adolescent pregnancy in Zambia

Of the six papers selected, varying associated factors were identified. These factors are consistent with the individual, socio-economic, environmental, and policy levels of the SEM (Table 4 ).

Bronfenbrenner’s [ 19 ] socio-ecological model/framework posits a multiplicity of factors associated with adolescent pregnancy operationalize at four levels: the individual (microsystem); interpersonal (mesosystem); environmental (ecosystem) and policy level (macrosystem).This model offers explanations regarding the influence of social environments on human development and provision of health services to guide the research effort focusing on key actors/variables which include: age, sex, gender issues, employment status, residence, religion, early marriage, poverty, education level, peer pressure, coercive sexual relations, comprehensive sexuality education, access to sexual and reproductive health services including use contraceptives.

At the Microsystem (individual) level of influence, the adolescent is the main centre of focus in terms of factors affecting responses advocating refraining from indulging in risky sexual behaviours, including having multiple sexual partners. Menon et al. and Wood et al. [ 24 , 27 ] attest, through various studies carried out, that risky sexual behaviour can be construed as a function of age at sexual debut [ 21 , 24 ], exposure to media [ 21 ], knowledge of sexuality and reproduction [ 23 ], knowledge of contraception [ 22 , 24 ], contraceptive use [ 22 , 24 ], risky sexual behaviours (transactional sex [ 25 ], multiple sexual partners [ 25 ], child marriage [ 24 ], low levels of education, attitude/ perceptions by the adolescent as well as poverty in the household to which the individual belongs.

At the Mesosystem (interpersonal/socio-economic) level of influence, the individual’s disposition towards sexual behaviour is mostly influenced by close family members without ruling out other factors/variables such as educational attainment [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ], marital status [ 22 ], household wealth/poverty [ 20 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 26 ], peer pressure [ 23 ], and relationship to household head [ 21 ]. Low household wealth was a major factor identified in many studies [ 21 , 22 , 24 ]. The studies reported that low household economic status increases the risk of adolescent pregnancy with adolescents from the wealthiest households being protected from adolescent pregnancy. Menon et al. note that nationally, household poverty increases the risk of pregnancy among adolescents in Zambia using the 2014 ZDHS data [ 24 ].

It was also reported that major factors to adolescent pregnancy at the socio-economic factors were peer pressure [ 23 ] and relationship to household head (spouse) [ 21 ]. The researchers noted that adolescents who were spouses to the household head were more likely to get pregnant (OR = 14.79, 95%CI = 11.55–8.63) [ 21 ]. This however begs the question pertaining to the period the adolescent became pregnant as it is not abundantly clear whether conception occurred before or after marriage to the household head (presumably male-headed household).

Ecosystem (Community/Societal) level factors for adolescent pregnancy were also reported. Key at this level of influence, are neighbours, family and friends who potentially can influence an adolescent to be favourably disposed towards a certain trajectory. It is also at this level, that differences in prevalence rates become glaring as reported by Menon et al. [ 24 ]. These were socio-cultural, gender and sexual norms [ 21 , 22 ] which encouraged early or child marriage, early sexual initiation, unprotected sex, and barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health information and services. For instance, Svanemyr observes that socio-cultural norms about the use of contraceptive increases the risk of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia [ 23 ].

The Macrosystem (Policy/Legal) level of influence can be considered to be the most influential factor as enshrined in legal statutes which have force and effect of law, as attested for instance, by regulatory and policy framework on early marriages. Policy level factors comprised limited accessibility to SRH information and SRH services, including laws which prohibit adolescents from accessing SRH services including contraceptives [ 24 ]. The authors observed that due to limited access to sexual and reproductive health information and services many adolescents in Zambia are at risk of unplanned pregnancies.

Given the above contextual background the review then assessed the prevalence and factors influencing adolescent pregnancy in Zambia. It showed that prevalence of adolescent pregnancy varied between provinces as well as nationally. The factors may be categorized as being individual, socio-economic, environmental, and policy level factors.

Prevalence of adolescent pregnancy

The review revealed a significantly high prevalence of adolescent pregnancy ranging from 29% nationally [ 21 ] to 48% in the Eastern and Southern provinces [ 24 ]. Some of the studies [ 21 , 22 ] also assessed adolescent motherhood, which presents as a limitation to capturing the magnitude of the problem, since this approach does not cover adolescents who may have lost pregnancy due to induced abortion or miscarriage. Nevertheless, this prevalence is in tandem with the high prevalence of the national adolescent pregnancy reported in the 2018 ZDHS [ 10 ]. It is important to understand the context-specific drivers of adolescent pregnancy in the country. One way could be through carrying out robust country-wide studies to allow for comparisons. This would address information gaps relating to possible ineffective or weak implementation of existing policies and interventions instituted to address the problem [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].

Individual level factors

This review showed that low level exposure to media is a factor significantly impacting adolescent pregnancy in Zambia. Exposure to various media platforms provides SRH information to young people [ 31 , 32 ], and in some cases, a useful source of information on where to obtain SRH services including contraceptives and abortion services, hence contributing to the removal of some existing barriers to accessing SRH care. Further, exposure to the media has been found to trigger discussions about ASRH issues in addition to encouraging adolescents to utilize SRH youth reproductive and family planning services [ 33 ]. Exposure to mass media, can greatly influence adolescents’ attitudes, social expectations and avoidance of risky sexual behaviours thereby reducing risk of pregnancy [ 31 ].

Insufficient knowledge about sexual and reproductive health has been noted to increase the risk of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia. This is in line with the findings of many studies carried out in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) [ 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Lack of knowledge about SRH issues indicates prevalence of poor safe sexual practices including contraceptive use and STIs prevention. As such, age-appropriate sexual health education programmes for adolescents are key to developing safe SRH as well as preventing adolescent pregnancy [ 39 ].

Early or child marriage was noted to be another a factor impacting Zambia’s adolescent pregnancy as attested by similar findings in previous studies across Africa pointing out the influential role of socio-cultural norms and practices in most developing countries [ 3 , 4 , 39 ]. Child marriage is still prevalent across Africa despite most countries having laws prohibiting and criminalizing marriage before the age of 18 years which might be due to sporadic or total lack of enforcement of these laws with no sanctions when they are routinely violated [ 40 ].

It is common cause that risky sexual behaviours among most adolescents have been reported as factors that increase the risk of adolescent pregnancy [ 27 , 41 ]. Frequent sexual activity at an early age, multiple sexual partners, transactional and unprotected sex are common among adolescents and young people. Such risky sexual behaviours can be attributed, amongst other factors, to household poverty levels as noted in many studies [ 27 , 41 , 42 ]. In fact, a number of studies have reported a tendency among some adolescent girls to use sexual relationships with older men to cater for some of their financial needs [ 41 , 42 ]. Early sexual initiation and lack of contraceptives as factors impacting adolescent pregnancy, as reported elsewhere in this review, is corroborated by findings from previous studies [ 3 , 43 ]. In contrast, Worku et al.’s study indicated that contraceptive use among adolescents tends to increase the risk of adolescent pregnancy [ 44 ]. This could be explained as result of failed contraceptive failure due to poor knowledge on its correct use.

Interpersonal/socio-economic level factors

This review also accentuates the importance of two main interpersonal level factors, namely, peer pressure and relationship to household head. At the interpersonal level, supportive relationships that reinforce positive sexual and reproductive health behaviours among adolescents such as family influence, have an impact on the sexual and reproductive health vulnerabilities and experiences of adolescents [ 45 ]. Peer pressure as a major factor contributing to adolescent pregnancy has been reported in many other studies in Africa [ 46 , 47 , 48 ]. It has been established that peer groups play a significant role as agents of socialization which often influences lifestyle choices including sexual behaviours of teenagers. Pressure from this group may be so overwhelming to an extent that teenagers tend to conform to the sexual behaviour norms considered acceptable to their peer group [ 49 ].

Regarding the finding that relationship with household head is associated with adolescent pregnancy, this is not inconsistent with the findings by Worku et al. where relation to household head was significantly associated with teenage pregnancy in East Africa [ 44 ]. This could be attributed to the fact that some of the adolescents are married to the household head which increases their likelihood of becoming pregnant as wedded adolescents, a fact also identified by Wado et al. [ 21 ]. It is worth noting that teenage pregnancy mostly precedes the marriage. This is specially the case in most developing countries where sometimes entering into marriage is occasioned by unplanned pregnancy [ 50 , 51 ].

Additionally, low level educational attainments were associated with increased risk of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia. This finding resonates well with those of other similar studies which report that low educational expectations and school dropouts are common factors for adolescent pregnancy [ 8 , 43 , 52 , 53 , 54 ]. Studies have found a link between the number of years spent in school and modern contraceptive use with more years associated with higher chances of using modern contraceptives [ 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ]. In addition, educational attainment and adolescent pregnancy are interconnected such that while low educational attainment increases risk of adolescent pregnancy, unplanned pregnancy often truncates education for most adolescent girls. This could be attributed to the fact that education empowers adolescent girls regarding their sexual relationships and safe sex practices [ 60 ].

Low socio-economic status in the form of poor household wealth, poverty, and lack of resources tend to have a direct and high impact on the risk of adolescent pregnancy. Several studies have indicated that low family incomes increase the risk of adolescent pregnancy [ 38 , 42 ]. These studies further observed that adolescent girls engaged in sexual relations with men in exchange for gifts and money or in return for financial support for their needs including but not limited to basic necessities such as sanitary pads and school fees [ 61 , 62 ]. It can be noted that household poverty potentially increases the vulnerability of adolescent girls due to the need to meet some basic necessities. This may be construed as explaining the use of transactional sex as an economic survival strategy by young girls from households with high poverty levels risking pregnancy at a younger age [ 63 ].

Environmental level factors

The finding that existing socio-cultural, gender and sexual norms in Zambia are linked to increased risk of adolescent pregnancy is supported by many other studies [ 35 , 37 , 64 , 65 ]. For instance, on cultural beliefs, encouraging larger families and early childbearing, Ayele et al. and Kaphagawani and Kalipeni reported that the prevailing cultural norms of marrying off young girls once they reach puberty leads to adolescent pregnancy [ 3 , 4 ]. Studies have also found that being a spouse was a significant predictor of adolescent pregnancy [ 4 , 44 , 54 ]. These norms may contribute to adolescent girls seeing unplanned pregnancies as normal and socially accepted.

Similarly, norms governing contraceptive use were found to be a factor in adolescent pregnancy. Community-wide negative perceptions and beliefs regarding modern contraceptives was noted to be a common predictor of adolescent pregnancy in previous studies [ 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ]. These norms lead to the unacceptability and non-use of modern contraceptives among adolescents. In some cases, parents and guardians do not support the provision of contraceptive services to adolescents hence recommendations have been made to engage and persuade key community gatekeepers such as religious leaders and chiefs to generate wider community support [ 66 , 70 ]. In this regard, Svanemyr et al. contend that as part of efforts to reduce environmental level factors, positive social norms and community support need to be enabled for adolescents to practice safer sexual behaviours and have increased access to SRH information and services [ 45 ].

Policy/legal level factors

In addition to the above-mentioned factors, limited access to SRH information and services was identified as a policy/legal level factor for adolescent pregnancy in Zambia. Other studies in LMICs have also reported that lack of SRH service increases the risk of adolescent pregnancy [ 71 , 72 , 73 ]. Such a situation hinders adolescents from receiving much-needed SRH information, counselling and contraceptive services [ 71 ], against a background where the unmet need for contraceptives alone is considerably high in LMICs [ 74 ]. At the policy level, embedded provisions in some laws and policies related to the health, socio-economic, educational sectors and broad societal norms may hinder access to SRH and adolescents’ enjoyment of their human rights and freedoms [ 45 ]. In Zambia, adolescents below 16 years of age require parental/guardian consent to access SRH services, especially contraceptives.

The factors identified in this review suggest that the factors associated with adolescent pregnancy are varied but multifaceted and interconnected. There was more evidence about determinants of adolescent pregnancy in the individual and socio-economic levels compared to the environmental and policy levels. This indicates paucity of empirical evidence at these levels to support policy and intervention development and likely cause of the failure of some efforts to reduce the problem of teenage pregnancy. It thus shows that in designing interventions, little evidence from environmental and policy levels have been considered and incorporated. We did not observe any differences in the factors/levels identified in the literature based on the indicators of adolescent pregnancy measured by researchers (record of live birth or self-report). However, studies using primary data captured factors at more levels than those using secondary data.

Strengths and limitations

This systematic review presents findings of critical importance to the prevention of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia. However, the pulled studies do not cover all the regions, hence limiting the representativeness of the review findings to generalize on the whole country. In some of the included studies, adolescent motherhood was instead assessed as proxy to adolescent pregnancy. This presents as a limitation in capturing the magnitude of the problem since this approach does not cover adolescents who may have lost pregnancy due to induced abortion or miscarriage. In addition to this, the low number of studies included in the final review and the inclusion of various designs of studies that led to the heterogeneity which hindered the ability to perform a meta-analysis. In addition, there was no control over the data collection, cleaning and analysis of the studies considered in this study. There is however, merit on the integrity of the data and findings of the selected studies which are very germane and relevant to the prevention of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia and other SSA countries.

Implications

The prevalence of adolescent pregnancy in Zambia remains high and could be a major hindrance for the country to attain SDGs on health and wellbeing (SDG3) gender equality and women’s empowerment (SDG5) and decent work (SDG8) [ 7 ]. Numerous health interventions such as health education, skill-building, and increasing accessibility to contraceptives [ 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 ] including policies and legal frameworks have been implemented over the years to improve the health of young people and decrease adolescent pregnancy in the country [ 79 ]. Adolescent pregnancy however remains high. These interventions and policies are somewhat fragmented and not designed with multi-level and multi-sectoral connections. Thus, they may tend to overlook other aspects of the multifaceted factors being delivered or may serve to create other avenues which may mitigate against these efforts. Robust and nationally representative studies are needed to fill this lacuna.

Zambia’s high adolescent pregnancy rates were found to be associated with various individual, socio-economic, environmental, and policy level factors. This suggests that stakeholders need to consider a multilevel and multisectoral approach in addressing the challenge. There a is need to address the socio-cultural dimensions and foster political will in interventions, such as using incentives to stay in school, strategies to delay pregnancy and marriage, which include access to SRH information and services, use of positive deviant approaches in communities, policy/legal review, advocacy at policy level to end child marriages, investment in contraception, and access to adolescent friendly health care services.

Availability of data and materials

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study. Nevertheless, the selected articles have all been listed in Table 2 .

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Malunga, G., Sangong, S., Saah, F.I. et al. Prevalence and factors associated with adolescent pregnancies in Zambia: a systematic review from 2000–2022. Arch Public Health 81 , 27 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-023-01045-y

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FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTING TO EARLY MARRIAGE AMONG FEMALE TEENAGERS.pdf

The study aimed at asses the factors which contribute to early marriage among teenagers, it was to gather information on the extent, magnitude and consequences of early marriages in Ubungo Municipality, as a basis for raising awareness on how children, particularly girls, are affected by the practice The Study was conducted at Msigani ward,Mbezi ward,Saranga ward and Kwembe ward on May and June 2018. These four wards are among the areas in Ubungo Municipal in Dar es salaam most affected by early marriage. As shown in this report, girls are more affected by early marriage than boys, since girls are marginalized, their voices are never heard and they are, in most cases, considered as ‘investments’ by their parents and guardians who receive bride price when the girls are married. The survey sought to find out firstly whether people in these wards knew anything about early marriage in their areas. Respondents were asked to define ‘who is a child’, whether they knew what child marriage was, and if they had any views on child marriage in their localities. Secondly, respondents were asked about the extent and causes of early marriage in their areas – the number of cases in their communities – and whether they thought early marriage was a good practice or bad practice. Factors contribute to early marriage formed a further category of questioning. The respondents were then asked if they knew the impact of child marriage on the individual children, their families and the community at large. Finally, respondents were asked if they knew any laws, policies or regulations which govern marriage in Tanzania. The practice are compounded by many factors including: economic factors, social factors like lack of knowledge about what constitutes ‘a child’, ideas about the age at which girls or boys are considered ready for marriage, and the association of puberty with readiness for marriage for both girls and boys. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches while the research design was descriptive survey design. Data were collected using interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussion methods. The population sample of the study comprised fourty (40) respondent , categorized into four respondents, Teachers 10, local governments officer 5, Parents/Guardians/Community Members 5,Female pupils/students 15 and social workers 5

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Samuel C H I J I O K E Okorie

This study sets out to explore the socio economic variables and early marriage among teenage girls in Obanliku Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to examine and to determine the Socio economic variables and its relationship with early marriage among teenage girls in the study area. The study was guided by Human Right Approach and Radical Feminist Theory which analyse the right of the female gender and patriarchy as the cause of women’s oppression, and this in turn, hinders them from participating in educational activities equal to men. Survey design was adopted to facilitate the study which enabled the researcher to gather data easily and freely through direct participant observation, key informant interviews and structured questionnaire. A 4 point likert scale; four research questions; and four null hypotheses guided the study. The sample population was 100 respondents both male and females. Data was gathered using questionnaire, oral narrative, key informant interview, articles, journals and other forms of secondary data collection. Data was analysed using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient (r). The study found out that early marriage was facilitated as result of low family income, cost of education, early pregnancy and cultural practice. The study, therefore, concludes that early marriage correlates with family Socio economic status. This finding agrees with that of UNICEF (In the work of Envuladu E.A; et al on: Determinants and effect of girl child marriage: a cross sectional study of school girls (cited Dec 20th 2018) which opined that Families with low income engage more in Bride wealth which enhances the practice of early marriage of teenage girls in most African communities. The study also finds out that early marriage correlates with cost of education. This finding UV with the position of Field & Ambrus (2008) who noted that, early marriage below the age of eighteen (18) can lead to decrease of about 4-6 percent of girls not completing their education factors and child marriage is usually against the will of the girls who desire to be educated and influential in the society but cannot due to educational cost. As means to promote behavioural change approaches to GBV in the society, the study recommends: Government intervention in reducing the cost of education for the people in rural communities with little or no means of income; Promote rural socio economic activities; Support gender empowerment projects; enforce laws that prohibits early marriage GBV; Sex and gender role Education; Creation of gender, development and education centre, Public awareness programs through town hall meetings, Use of village town criers and Advocacy in public places; Establishment of GBV monitoring team in communities; Collaborative Synergy between stakeholders and community indigenes; Home Training and support; Goal Setting and self-discovery; Setting up IPC community facilitators on GBV; Trainings on Sexual Reproductive Health and Hygiene; and Carrying out HIV test. In conclusion; Children should be taught at an early age what sex is, the importance of sexual consent age and what to do if found in an unwanted situation.

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Wasihun Edossa

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Mojgan Mirghafourvand

Background Child marriage is a violation of children’s rights and it exposes them to social isolation and psychological damages. These negative effects are not limited to them and expands to the family and society as well. The present research aimed at determining the knowledge and viewpoint of adolescent girls regarding child marriage, its causes and consequences in the city of Tabriz-Iran, in 2020–2021. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out on 300 adolescent girls who had records in the health centers in the city of Tabriz. The data were collected using the sociodemographic characteristics questionnaire, questionnaire of knowledge, and view of adolescent girls regarding child marriage, and its causes and consequences. The multivariate logistic regression model with adjusting the sociodemographic characteristics was used to determine the relationship between the viewpoint of adolescent girls about child marriage and their knowledge in this regard. Results The mean (SD)...

CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research - Zenodo

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Journal of Law, Policy and Globalization

Rosdalina Bukido

Marriage is one of the commands that are highly recommended to all mankind. Human as a legal subject has the right to exercise legal powers granted by the Act. Each individual legal authority to perform marriages has been clearly regulated in Law Number 1 of 1974 on Marriage. This paper describes the factors that cause the occurrence of early marriages in the city of Manado North Sulawesi Province. The number of respondents in this paper is of 100 people by employing qualitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that the main factors that led to the early marriage in the city of Manado are pregnancies due to promiscuity. Other factors are the lack of knowledge of parents and children on the rules of marriage, economic factors and their marriage dispensation from the court. Keywords: Marriage, the underage children. 1 Introduction Marriage is a vessel to form a family in accordance with the purpose of marriage stated on the Marriage Act No. 1 of 1974 which is to build a happy and everlasting family based on a belief in one God. The purpose of marriage is to establish a family; having descendants for a family consists of a husband, a wife and children; the marriage is forever, as we may see the emphasized on the word "eternal"; and the marriage is to achieve happiness. One of the most important things regulated in the Marriage Act is the qualification to perform marriages. Marriages performed not in accordance with the terms of marriage (minimum age for marriage) is then classified as an early marriage. There are multiple factors that encourage them to perform under age marriage. Perpetrators of early marriage have their own reasons of committing to early marriage. There are diverse factors driving the occurrence of early marriage which range from economic factors in which they want to help their family to meet the necessities; to social factor in which they aim to seal the disgrace of being pregnant due to promiscuity which is against the accepted norms of the communities. Early marriage mostly occurs during puberty, this is because adolescents are particularly vulnerable to sexual behavior. Early marriage is also happen as teenagers think emotionally to do a wedding, thinking they had loved each other and are ready to get married. Another factor is the arranged-marriage by parents which most of the time is due to schools' drop out and economic problems (Umi Nurhasanah, Susetyo) Marriages are generally performed by adults with no regard to the profession, religion, ethnicities, economic status (poor or rich), and place of origin (living in the village or in the city). Not a few people who already have physical or mental abilities will be looking for a partner in accordance with what they wanted. Marriage in human life is not a temporary but for a lifetime commitment. Unfortunately, not everyone can understand the eternal nature and purpose of marriage that is to obtain the true happiness (Rina Yulianti, 2010). In cases where the age of marriage is too young may result in the increasing cases of divorce due to lack of awareness of household life responsibilities as husband and wife. Successful marriage is often marked by a readiness to take responsibility. Once deciding to get married, they are ready to bear all expenses incurred as a result of marriage, both concerning the provision of livelihood, education of children, and those related to the protection, education, and good relationships (Rina Yulianti, 2010). Definition of marriage contained in the Act No. 1 of 1974 is in line with the philosophical meaning of the first principle of Pancasila on Almighty God. The first precept underlies and animates the principles of just and civilized humanity, the unity of Indonesia, democracy led by the inner wisdom of deliberations representation and social justice for all Indonesian people. It is based on the nature of the principal that supporters of the State are human beings. Because the state is an institution of living together, humanitarian agencies and human beings are creatures of the Almighty God, so that the existence of all mankind is as a result of the existence of the Almighty God which is taken as a primary cause (Kaelan, 2004). The implementation of early marriage is religiously legal if all marriage requirements have been accomplished by also considering the minimum age prerequisite for both men and women. Maturity of thought and action is obviously needed by the men and women prior to pledging the sacred promise to form a new family. One of the negative impacts of under-age marriage is that both husband and wife are less knowledgeable about

kameel Ahmady

It is a well-documented and an undeniable premise that Early Child Marriage (ECM) dramatically affects and harms the physical and psychological well-being of young children’s lives. In some developing countries, ECM is an economic tool that can improve the economic status of the family. It can fortify bonds between families, ensure girl’s virginity before marriage, controls her sexual desire, and avoids the possibility of a girl reaching an age where she is no longer desirable as a wife by a man or his family2. Complications related to pregnancy and childbirth are the main causes of death amongst 15–19 year-old girls3. Equally devastating are the health consequences which make girls prone to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. From a social perspective, it is a brutal end to her education and autonomy as well as a minimisation of life choices. Girls are reduced to mere commercial commodities. From a human rights and gender perspective, the practice of ECM is the consequences of gender oppression and harmful customary or traditional practices that results in sustaining gender inequality and subjugation.

Academia. edu

ABSTRACT This dissertation deals with the topic of Child marriage among girls in the Nkoranza North District in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. Child marriage is observed as a traditional practice directly threatens the rights to education, health as well as personal development, to the wellbeing of girls. The main objectives of this dissertation was to explore the social, cultural, and economic factors that influence child marriages in the Nkoranza North District, examine the prevalence rate of child marriages, and find out how child marriages are arranged in the District.. Purposive sampling was used to get 43 respondents who were males and females representing others in this study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect information from chiefs, queen mothers, religious leaders, parents, fetish priests, midwives, girls below 18 in child marriage, and girls above 18 years who entered into marriage before 18 years. The study found that factors which contribute to child marriage among girls in the Nkoranza North District include poverty, lack of education, bad religious practices, cultural practices, gender inequality, peer pressure influence, and teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy emerged as a very significant reason for which parents are forced to give their daughters under 18 years to marriage, and this observation cut across all the category of participants that were used for the study. The study therefore recommends among other things for communities, organizations and parents to pursue and promote activities that will discourage early pregnancy among girls. These may include the provision of well-resourced educational facilities and role models/mentors for the children especially the girls.

Biwott K E M B O I Samuel

Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. More than one in three (about 250 million) entered into union before age 15. Boys are also married as children, but girls are disproportionately affected. Every year, an estimated 15 million girls aged under 18 are married worldwide with little or no say in the matter. Child marriage, also known as early marriage, is defined as “Any marriage carried out below the age of 18 years, before the girl is physically, physiologically, and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing.” Child marriage, on the other hand, involves either one or both spouses being children and may take place with or without formal registration, and under civil, religious or customary laws. However, when one spouse is female, this tends to have more negative impact, and therefore the emphasis on child marriages tends to focus on the girl child. UNICEF defines Child marriage, as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18. Child marriage is widespread and can lead to a lifetime of disadvantage and deprivation. The start of marriage is an important social and demographic indicator and, in most societies, represents the point in a person’s life when childbearing first becomes acceptable. The duration of exposure to the risk of pregnancy depends primarily on the age at which women first marry. Women who marry early, on average, are more likely to have their first child at a young age and give birth to more children. In 2004 a UNICEF statistical study estimated that more than 100 million girls in the developing world would be married before the age of 18 by 2015 (UNICEF Early Marriage, 2005). UNICEF found child marriage to be a common practice in Africa with over 42% (though this over 60% in parts of East and West Africa) married before they reached the age of 18 years. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before reaching age 18. One in nine is married under age 15. (UNFPA). While both boys and girls are affected, child marriages impact on girls in far larger numbers and with more intensity. Worldwide, more than 75 million young women aged 20 to 24 years, a quarter of them in Africa, entered their first marriage or union before they celebrated their 18th birthday. But the global profile of child marriage is changing. A growing child population combined with a slow decline in the practice of child marriage in Africa will put millions more girls at risk. If current trends continue, almost half of the world’s child brides in 2050 will be African.4 The study aims to contribute to the elimination of both forms of gender discrimination by their desired long-term impact of the programme which is to ensure that girls and young women are free from all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) and are economically empowered by 2030 in East Africa. Secondly it recognizes that child marriage affects both girls and boys, but of course the consequences are dire for the girl child as evidenced from other previous studies whereby the affected girls are often at risk of sexual, physical, psychological and economic violence. Such child marriage often ends the development opportunities of girls, especially in their education, which is evident in the high number of school dropout rates and out-of-school children in our communities as estimated by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics which estimates that the education of 750,000 of these children is affected. To further understand the issues around child marriage, conducted a research Study on Social Norms Affecting Early Child marriages. This study report delves into several aspects of child marriage including drivers, barriers, perpetrators, knowledge on child marriage, and role of traditional and religious leaders as advocates against child marriage as well as making key recommendations for the better implementation of programs on child marriage.

Iranian Journal of Positive Psychology

World of Researches Publication WRP

Early marriage or the phenomenon of childhood is widespread in many parts of the world for many reasons, including poverty, gender inequality, traditional cultural practices affecting human societies, illiteracy and insecurity, leading to lack of education Correct the next generation, increasing divorce rates, raising maternal and child mortality rates and health problems. Marriage at an early age and before conceptual maturity presents the child with a world of unfulfilled needs and expectations, which overestimates psychological and psychological effects. Due to the fact that these marriages occur before the child reaches mental maturity, the girls are forced to marry at an early age. Because they have not been able to go through their childhood and adolescence, they will become mentally ill over time. Suicide, escape from home, and increasing divorced children in the community as some of the damages of child marriage. In developing countries, one in three girls under the age of 18 and one in nine girls, one is married before the age of 15. They are, in the word sense, converted into young child sex slaves. Early childhood marriage is organized by the child's family in accordance with the custom, and often involves family-friendly pledges and concessions at a time when the children themselves are younger than they decide on these marriages. In both the phenomenon of female genital mutilation and early marriage, consent is taken from others instead of the individual. In some countries, female genital mutilation results in early childhood marriage as a result. In some cases, the child's marriage has occurred in the traditional societies after the occurrence of circumcision.

ANIMA Indonesian Psychological Journal

Nilla Sari Dewi Iustitiani

This study aims to give an overview of the causes and consequences of child marriage by qualitative research using in-depth interview techniques. Participants were eight girls who married during their childhood and live in Java, Indonesia. Interviews were analyzed by using content analysis techniques. The results show that underlying factors causing child marriage, include the following: (1) unwanted pregnancy; (2) the influence of parents and the surrounding environment for fear of slander and unwanted things; (3) education; and (4) economy. The consequences of child marriage include: (1) dicontinuation of education; (2) economic instability; (3) violation of law, age falsification, unregistered marriage, difficulties in obtaining birth certificates; (4) deprivation of children&#39;s liberty and autonomy; (5) psychological problems; (6) violence; and (7) health problems especially in girls.

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