Lowe Mat, Joof Mamsamba, Rojas Bomar Mendez
Society for the Study of Women's Health (SSWH), Old Yundum, Kombo North District, The Gambia.
Agency for the Development of Women and Children (ADWAC), Kerewan, North Bank Region, The Gambia.
F1000Res. 2019 Nov 21;8:1949. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.21076.3. eCollection 2019.
Over the last two decades, early marriage in the Gambia declined significantly (from 58% to 30%). Yet evidence indicates that nearly 8.6% of marriages in the Gambia involved girls younger than 15, and 46.5% of marriages are with girls aged 18 or below. The reasons for the decline but continuing practice of early marriage, despite existing legislation prohibiting child marriage, are not very well understood. Very few studies have been conducted to find out what and how local factors influence decisions about early marriage in the Gambia. More information is therefore needed on underlying reasons for the persistence of early marriage in the Gambia so that program managers can use this information to design strategies towards accelerating the decline of early marriages. The study was conducted in 24 rural settlements in Lower Baddibu District in the North Bank Region of the Gambia. It was based on a mixed-methods design including a cross-sectional household survey with a sample of 181 female adolescents and focus group discussions with 16 male and female parents. Focus group discussions were digitally-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis, while survey data were analyzed using Stata. Using multiple regression analysis, this study found that ethnicity more than other factors, exerts an independent effect on early marriage. Themes identified during focus group discussions also revealed that fear of premarital sex and loss of virginity outside marriage were major reasons for the perpetuation of early marriage. These findings suggest that the practice of early marriage in rural Gambia is associated with ethnicity and practices related to social and cultural norms. The findings also suggest that in order to decrease early marriages, future efforts should focus on allaying the fears around premarital sex and loss of virginity related to delay in marriage.
在过去二十年中，冈比亚的早婚现象显著减少（从58%降至30%）。然而，有证据表明，冈比亚近8.6%的婚姻涉及15岁以下的女孩，46.5%的婚姻对象是18岁及以下的女孩。尽管现有立法禁止童婚，但早婚现象仍在减少却持续存在，其原因尚不完全清楚。很少有研究去探究当地因素对冈比亚早婚决策有哪些影响以及如何产生影响。因此，需要更多关于冈比亚早婚现象持续存在的潜在原因的信息，以便项目管理人员能够利用这些信息制定策略，加速早婚现象的减少。 该研究在冈比亚北岸地区下巴迪布区的24个农村定居点进行。研究采用混合方法设计，包括对181名女性青少年进行横断面家庭调查，以及与16名男女家长进行焦点小组讨论。焦点小组讨论进行了数字录音，逐字转录，并采用主题内容分析法进行分析，而调查数据则使用Stata进行分析。 通过多元回归分析，本研究发现，与其他因素相比，种族对早婚有独立影响。焦点小组讨论中确定的主题还表明，对婚前性行为的恐惧以及婚外失去贞操是早婚现象长期存在的主要原因。 这些发现表明，冈比亚农村地区的早婚现象与种族以及与社会文化规范相关的习俗有关。研究结果还表明，为了减少早婚现象，未来的努力应集中在消除与推迟婚姻相关的对婚前性行为和失去贞操的恐惧上。
