Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Bldg. 1, 11th Floor, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Bldg. 1, 11th Floor, Boston, MA 02115, USA; FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 651 Huntington Ave, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2017 Jul;185:91-101. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.027. Epub 2017 May 11.
This paper quantitatively examines the intergenerational effects of girl child marriage, or the developmental and health outcomes of children born to women who marry before age 18. The overall objective is to understand the mechanisms through which girl child marriage affects the health and well-being of children in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the relative magnitude and impact of these mechanisms. We used data from 37,558 mother-child pairs identified through 16 national and sub-national cross-sectional surveys across sub-Saharan Africa conducted between 2010 and 2014 by the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Clusters Survey program. The Early Childhood Development Index was used to measure child development, and stunting was used to measure health. Using logistic regression, we found that the odds of being off-track for development and being stunted were 25% and 29% higher, respectively, for children born to women who married before age 18 compared to those whose mothers married later (p < 0.001). Geographic location and primary education, which were conceptualized as contextual factors, explained most of this relationship, controlling for country fixed-effects. In adjusted models, we found that early childbearing was not the sole pathway through which girl child marriage affected child development and health. Our final models revealed that disparities in advanced maternal education and wealth explained child development and stunting. We conclude that there are intergenerational consequences of girl child marriage on her child's well-being, and that through association with other contextual, socioeconomic, and biological factors, marrying early does matter for child development and health. Our findings resonate with existing literature and point toward important policy considerations for improving early childhood outcomes.
本文定量考察了童婚（即 18 岁以下女性结婚所生子女的发展和健康结果）的代际效应。总体目标是了解童婚影响撒哈拉以南非洲儿童健康和福祉的机制，以及这些机制的相对重要性和影响。我们使用了来自联合国儿童基金会多指标类集调查方案于 2010 年至 2014 年在撒哈拉以南非洲进行的 16 项国家和次国家横断面调查中确定的 37558 对母婴对的数据。采用早期儿童发展指数来衡量儿童发展，用发育迟缓来衡量健康。通过逻辑回归，我们发现与母亲晚婚的儿童相比，早婚母亲所生的儿童在发展方面偏离轨道和发育迟缓的可能性分别高出 25%和 29%（p<0.001）。地理位置和小学教育被视为背景因素，在控制国家固定效应后，解释了大部分这种关系。在调整后的模型中，我们发现早育并不是童婚影响儿童发展和健康的唯一途径。我们的最终模型表明，母亲教育程度和财富方面的差异解释了儿童发展和发育迟缓。我们的结论是，童婚对其子女的福祉存在代际影响，而且通过与其他背景、社会经济和生物因素的关联，早婚确实会对儿童发展和健康产生影响。我们的研究结果与现有文献相呼应，并为改善儿童早期发展成果提出了重要的政策考虑因素。
