Author : Alissa Koski
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (964 download)
Book Synopsis Child Marriage in Sub-saharan Africa by : Alissa Koski
Download or read book Child Marriage in Sub-saharan Africa written by Alissa Koski and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The marriage of any person below the age of eighteen, often referred to as child marriage, is widely considered a violation of human rights. Over the past decade the practice has garnered attention as a potential threat to women's health. Despite increasing discourse, estimates of trends in the prevalence of child marriage are dated and methodological challenges plague published studies of the relationship between child marriage and health. My thesis provides an updated examination of trends in sub-Saharan Africa, where rates of child marriage are highest, and aims to address some of the difficulties inherent in estimating the effects of child marriage on women's health. The first manuscript in this thesis describes changes in the prevalence of child marriage in twenty-nine sub-Saharan African countries over a twenty-year period. I used a novel estimation technique to avoid biases that may have affected earlier studies. My results indicate that the prevalence of child marriage has declined over time but the rate of decline has stagnated in some countries. Estimating the effects of child marriage on health is challenging for many reasons. The exposure is difficult to define and measure. Women married as children differ in many ways from their peers who married later in life, leading to concerns regarding confounding. I provide a critical evaluation of child marriage as a treatment within the potential outcomes framework and describe the challenge of approximating a causal contrast using observational data. The second manuscript included in this thesis makes the assumptions required for effect estimation more transparent through the use of matching techniques to estimate the effect of child marriage on the risk of domestic violence. Improving educational opportunities for girls is a promising mechanism for delaying marriage. Since the 1990s many sub-Saharan African countries have adopted legislation that prohibits public primary schools from charging tuition fees. Reducing financial barriers to schooling may result in greater educational attainment, particularly for girls. The third manuscript describes my evaluation of the effect of these legislative changes on the timing of reproductive events among girls in sixteen countries. Child marriage remains a pervasive violation of human rights that disproportionately affects girls throughout the developing world. Upholding these rights requires knowledge of the geographic distribution of child marriage and the effectiveness of policies that aim to end the practice. This thesis represents my contribution to this effort." --
