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Affiliation
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Core Faculty, Program in Public Health, Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, Stony Brook Medicine, Health Sciences Center, Level 3, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA. E-mail: rachel.kidman@stonybrook.edu. |
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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Studies in South Asia suggest that child marriage is a strong risk factor for intimate partner violence (IPV), but evidence outside the region is lacking.
METHODS: This study uses standardized data from demographic and health surveys in 34 countries to test the hypothesis that young women (age 20-24) who married as children are at increased risk of past year physical and/or sexual IPV as compared with those women who married as adults.
RESULTS: Globally, 9% of respondents were married before they turned 15; another 25% were married between the ages of 15 and 17. Past year physical and/or sexual IPV was higher among women who married as children (29%) compared with those who married as adults (20%). This difference persisted in logistic regression models that adjust for sociodemographic characteristics [odds ratio (OR) 1.41 (1.30-1.52) for marriage before 15, and 1.42 (1.35-1.50) for marriage at 15-17]. However, there was considerable heterogeneity between countries: marriage before age 15 was associated with a combined measure of past year physical and/or sexual IPV in nine countries; women married between 15 and 17 were at increased risk of physical and/or sexual IPV in 19 countries. This heterogeneity was most evident in sub-Saharan Africa, and warrants further investigation in so far as it may help identify protective policies and norms.
CONCLUSION: Substantial reductions in IPV will likely require interventions to combat child marriage itself and to protect women from IPV within child marriages.
© The Author 2016; all rights reserved. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association.
Language: en |