Has Child Marriage Declined in sub-Saharan Africa? An Analysis of Trends in 31 Countries

Population and Development Review

Volumn 43, Issue 1, 2017, Pages 7-29

  Koski, Alissa ^a   Clark, Shelley ^a   Nandi, Arijit ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGE AT MARRIAGE; CHILD; DEMOGRAPHIC TREND; TREND ANALYSIS;

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 85012994959     PISSN: 00987921     EISSN: 17284457     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/padr.12035     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Arnaldo, Carlos. 2004. “Ethnicity and marriage patterns in Mozambique,” African Population Studies 19(1): 143–164.
2. Baird, Sarah, Craig McIntosh, and Berk Özler. 2011. “Cash or condition? Evidence from a cash transfer experiment,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126(4): 1709–1753.
3. Baird, Sarah. et al. 2010. “The short-term impacts of a schooling conditional cash transfer program on the sexual behavior of young women,” Health Economics 19(Suppl.): 55–68.
4. Baird, Sarah J. et al. 2012. “Effect of a cash transfer programme for schooling on prevalence of HIV and herpes simplex type 2 in Malawi: A cluster randomised trial,” The Lancet 379(9823): 1320–1329.
5. Blanc, Ann K. and Naomi Rutenberg. 1990. “Assessment of the quality of data on age at first sexual intercourse, age at first marriage, and age at first birth in the Demographic and Health Surveys.” in An Assessment of DHS-I Data Quality. Columbia, MD: Institute for Resource Development/Macro Systems, pp. 41-79.
6. Bracher, Michael, Gigi Santow, and Susan Cotts Watkins. 2003. “‘Moving’ and marrying: Modelling HIV infection among Newly-weds in Malawi,” Demographic Research Special Collection 1(Article 7): 207–246.
7. Clark, Shelley. 2004. “Early marriage and HIV risks in sub-Saharan Africa,” Studies in Family Planning 35(3): 149–160.
8. Duflo, Esther. et al. 2006. “Education and HIV/AIDS prevention: Evidence from a randomized evaluation in Western Kenya,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4024.
9. Erulkar, Annabel S. and Eunice Muthengi. 2009. “Evaluation of Berhane Hewan: A program to delay child marriage in rural Ethiopia,” International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 35(1): 6–14.
10. Field, Erica and Attila Ambrus. 2008. “Early marriage, age of menarche, and female schooling attainment in Bangladesh,” Journal of Political Economy 116(5): 881–930.
11. Gage, Anastasia J. 1995. An Assessment of the Quality of Data on Age at First Union, First Birth, and First Sexual Intercourse for Phase II of the Demographic and Health Surveys Program, Calverton, MD: Macro International.
12. Garenne, Michel. 2004. “Age at marriage and modernisation in sub-Saharan Africa,” Southern African Journal of Demography 9(2): 59–79.
13. Glynn, J.R. et al. 2001. “Why do young women have a much higher prevalence of HIV than young men? A study in Kisumu, Kenya and Ndola, Zambia,” AIDS (London, England) 15(Suppl. 4): S51–60.
14. Godha, Deepali, David R. Hotchkiss, and Anastasia J. Gage. 2013. “Association between child marriage and reproductive health outcomes and service utilization: A multi-country study from South Asia,” Journal of Adolescent Health 52(5): 552–558.
15. Hallfors, Denise Dion. et al. 2015. “The impact of school subsidies on HIV-Related outcomes among adolescent female orphans,” Journal of Adolescent Health 56(1): 79–84.
16. Harwood-Lejeune, Audrey. 2001. “Rising age at marriage and fertility in Southern and Eastern Africa,” European Journal of Population 17: 261–280.
17. ICF International. 2012. Demographic and Health Survey Sampling and Household Listing Manual. Calverton, MD: MEASURE DHS.
18. Jejeebhoy, Shireen J. 1995. “Education and women's age at marriage,” in Women's Education, Autonomy, and Reproductive Behaviour. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 60–77.
19. Jensen, Robert and Rebecca Thornton. 2003. “Early female marriage in the developing world,” Gender & Development 11(2): 9–19.
20. Kalamar, Amanda M., Susan Lee-Rife, and Michelle J. Hindin. 2016. “Interventions to prevent child marriage among young people in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of the published and gray literature,” Journal of Adolescent Health 59(Suppl.): S16–S21.
21. Kelly, Robert J. et al. 2003. “Age differences in sexual partners and risk of HIV-1 infection in rural Uganda,” Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (1999) 32(4): 446–451.
22. Locoh, Thérèse. 1994. “Social change and marriage arrangements: New types of union in Lomé, Togo,” in Caroline Bledsoe and Gilles Pison (eds.), Nuptiality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contemporary Anthropological and Demographic Perspectives. Oxford University Press, pp. 215–230.
23. Mensch, Barbara S., Monica J. Grant, and Ann K. Blanc. 2006. “The changing context of sexual initiation in sub-Saharan Africa,” Population and Development Review 32(4): 699–727.
24. Mensch, Barbara S., Susheela Singh, and John B. Casterline. 2006. “Trends in the timing of first marriage among men and women in the developing world,” in Cynthia B. Lloyd, Jere R. Behrman, Nelly P. Stromquist, and Barney Cohen (eds.), Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries: Selected Studies. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, pp. 118-171.
25. Minnesota Population Center. 2015. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International: Version 6.4 [Machine-readable database]. University of Minnesota.
26. Moss, Gregory B. et al. 1991. “Association of cervical ectopy with heterosexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus: results of a study of couples in Nairobi, Kenya,” The Journal of Infectious Diseases 164(3): 588–591.
27. Neal, Sarah E. and Victoria Hosegood. 2015. “How reliable are reports of early adolescent reproductive and sexual health events in Demographic and Health Surveys?,” International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health 41(4): 210–217.
28. Nove, Andrea. et al. 2014. “Maternal mortality in adolescents compared with women of other ages: Evidence from 144 countries,” The Lancet Global Health 2(3): e155–e164.
29. Parsons, Jennifer. et al. 2015. “Economic impacts of child marriage: A review of the literature,” The Review of Faith & International Affairs 13(3): 12–22.
30. Patton, George C. et al. 2009. “Global patterns of mortality in young people: a systematic analysis of population health data,” The Lancet 374(9693): 881–892.
31. Raj, Anita. 2010. “When the mother is a child: The impact of child marriage on the health and human rights of girls,” Archives of Disease in Childhood 95(11): 931–935.
32. Raj, Anita and Ulrike Boehmer. 2013. “Girl child marriage and its association with national rates of HIV, maternal health, and infant mortality across 97 countries,” Violence Against Women 19(4): 536–551.
33. Raj, Anita. et al. 2009. “Prevalence of child marriage and its effect on fertility and fertility-control outcomes of young women in India: a cross-sectional, observational study,” The Lancet 373(9678): 1883–1889.
34. Shapiro, David and Tesfayi Gebreselassie. 2013. “Marriage in sub-Saharan Africa: Trends, determinants, and consequences,” Population Research and Policy Review 33(2): 229–255.
35. Singh, Susheela and Renee Samara. 1996. “Early marriage among women in developing countries,” International Family Planning Perspectives 22: 148–157.
36. United Nations. 2011a. Population Facts: World Marriage Patterns. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/popfacts/PopFacts_2011-1.pdf.
37. United Nations. 2011b. World Fertility Policies 2011. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/worldfertilitypolicies2011/wfpolicies2011.html.
38. United Nations. 2015. World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/.
39. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. 2015. World Marriage Data 2015 (POP/DB/Marr/Rev2015).
40. van de Walle, Étienne and Dominique Meekers. 1994. “Marriage drinks and kola nuts,” in C. Bledsoe and G. Pison (eds.), Nuptiality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contemporary Anthropological and Demographic Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 57–73.
41. Westoff, Charles F. 2003. Trends in Marriage and Early Childbearing in Developing Countries, Calverton, MD: ORC Macro.
42. WORLD Policy Analysis Center. 2016 "Are there exceptions to the general legal minimum age of marriage for girls?," http://worldpolicycenter.org/policies/are-there-exceptions-to-the-general-legal-minimum-age-of-marriage-for-girls/is-there-an-exception-to-the-general-legal-minimum-age-of-marriage-for-girls-who-marry-under-religious-or-customary-law. Accessed December 7, 2016.