Child marriages in Zambia: a study of casual factors in selected schools in Chipili district, Zambia.
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Date
2018
Authors
Kauseni, Besa Delphine
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The University of Zambia
Abstract
Child marriage, also referred to as early marriage is an emerging economic and health concerns
across the world and remains a widespread problem especially in developing countries including
Zambia. Zambia has one of the highest child marriage rates in the world with 31 per cent of
women aged 20-24 married by the age of 18. UNICEF (2017) and the situation has not changed
much. The study investigated the causal factors of child marriages in selected schools in Chipili
District of Luapula province in Zambia among the boys and girls. The main objective of the
paper was to investigate the causal factors of child marriages in some selected schools in Chipili
district of Luapula province in Zambia. The study followed a mixed study research design and
supported by qualitative and quantitative. Focus group discussion guide, questionnaires and later
interview guide were used to collect data. A total of fifty participants were involved in the study
comprising thirty (30) pupils, ten (10) parents, eighty (8) regular teachers and two (2)
administrators. The sampling techniques involved simple random; cluster sampling and
purposive sampling were used. Thematic analysis for qualitative and descriptive statistics tools
for quantitative were the methods used for data analysis. Convenient sampling was also
employed on people who were conveniently available that the researcher met haphazardly who
included community members who were subjected to interviews on the causal factors to child
marriages. The study findings revealed that the prevalence of child marriages in schools around
the district was high according to reports from schools through PTA meetings. The study
ascertain that various causal factors led to high prevalence of child marriages but the most
prominent ones were high poverty, negative attitude towards girl’s education and peer pressure.
The most affected in child marriage were girls. The major recommendation was that the
government should come up with programmes that encourage girls to remain in schools as
opposed to get married at an early age such as reducing distances to schools, meeting school fees
and promotion of sex education in schools.
Description
Thesis
Keywords
Child marriages. , Girl child education. , Child marriages -- Advocacy and sensitization