Background: Teenage marriage eventually lead to teenage pregnancy with all it associated adverse consequences. Moreover, teenagers are less likely to utilize antenatal care and as well exhibit sub-optimal neonatal care compared to adult women. Thus, the need to report on teenage marriage in order to inform policy makers to provide necessary teenage sexual reproductive health services with relevant policies especially in post-conflict settings like Northern Uganda. Objectives: To describe prevalence and determinants of teenage marriage in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data was collected from 424 females of reproductive age using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires. Univariate and bivariate analyses were carried out using SPSS 16.0. Results: Mean age of study participants was 27 years. Majority of participants (79.0%) and their husbands (67.2%) were peasant farmers. Majority of participants were married (85.8%) with about one-fifth (18.1%) of the participants pregnant at the time of interview. Among the married participants, majority of the participants (65.1%) and their husbands (64.2%) had only primary education. Majority (86.3%) of the married women first got married as teenagers. Mean age at first marriage was 17 years. Women in this population generally got married at early ages. Women who got married at younger ages were lowly educated and generally never had formal paid employments. Likewise, women who got married at younger ages were generally married to lowly educated men with no formal employments. In contrast, women who married later in life had better education and married men with better education level and above all such couples tend to engage in formal paid employments. In addition, women who got married at older ages had less number of live births and desired to give birth to less children than women who got married at younger ages. Conclusions: Women in post-conflict Northern Uganda are experiencing high level of teenage marriage. This put them at risk of not attaining necessary education and employable skills hence poverty. This calls for targeted interventions from both government and development partners in order to reverse the current trend in teenage marriage due to inequality in formal education and other social amenities and thus save the girl child from poverty.
| Published in | Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 6, Issue 2) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15 |
| Page(s) | 61-65 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Teenage Marriage, Age at First Marriage, Rural Women, Post Conflict Settings
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APA Style
Simple Ouma, Kenneth Odong Obita, Turyasima Mananura, Acca Harriet Omara, Florence Nabbale, et al. (2018). Teenage Marriage in Post Conflict Northern Uganda: A Case of Amuru District. Science Journal of Public Health, 6(2), 61-65. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15
ACS Style
Simple Ouma; Kenneth Odong Obita; Turyasima Mananura; Acca Harriet Omara; Florence Nabbale, et al. Teenage Marriage in Post Conflict Northern Uganda: A Case of Amuru District. Sci. J. Public Health 2018, 6(2), 61-65. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15
AMA Style
Simple Ouma, Kenneth Odong Obita, Turyasima Mananura, Acca Harriet Omara, Florence Nabbale, et al. Teenage Marriage in Post Conflict Northern Uganda: A Case of Amuru District. Sci J Public Health. 2018;6(2):61-65. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15
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Download@article{10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15,
author = {Simple Ouma and Kenneth Odong Obita and Turyasima Mananura and Acca Harriet Omara and Florence Nabbale and Moses Toe Rama and Caroline Cephas Adong and Mpora Beatrice Odongkara and Emmanuel Igwaro Odongo-Aginya and Silvia Awor},
title = {Teenage Marriage in Post Conflict Northern Uganda: A Case of Amuru District},
journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
volume = {6},
number = {2},
pages = {61-65},
doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20180602.15},
abstract = {Background: Teenage marriage eventually lead to teenage pregnancy with all it associated adverse consequences. Moreover, teenagers are less likely to utilize antenatal care and as well exhibit sub-optimal neonatal care compared to adult women. Thus, the need to report on teenage marriage in order to inform policy makers to provide necessary teenage sexual reproductive health services with relevant policies especially in post-conflict settings like Northern Uganda. Objectives: To describe prevalence and determinants of teenage marriage in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data was collected from 424 females of reproductive age using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires. Univariate and bivariate analyses were carried out using SPSS 16.0. Results: Mean age of study participants was 27 years. Majority of participants (79.0%) and their husbands (67.2%) were peasant farmers. Majority of participants were married (85.8%) with about one-fifth (18.1%) of the participants pregnant at the time of interview. Among the married participants, majority of the participants (65.1%) and their husbands (64.2%) had only primary education. Majority (86.3%) of the married women first got married as teenagers. Mean age at first marriage was 17 years. Women in this population generally got married at early ages. Women who got married at younger ages were lowly educated and generally never had formal paid employments. Likewise, women who got married at younger ages were generally married to lowly educated men with no formal employments. In contrast, women who married later in life had better education and married men with better education level and above all such couples tend to engage in formal paid employments. In addition, women who got married at older ages had less number of live births and desired to give birth to less children than women who got married at younger ages. Conclusions: Women in post-conflict Northern Uganda are experiencing high level of teenage marriage. This put them at risk of not attaining necessary education and employable skills hence poverty. This calls for targeted interventions from both government and development partners in order to reverse the current trend in teenage marriage due to inequality in formal education and other social amenities and thus save the girl child from poverty.},
year = {2018}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Teenage Marriage in Post Conflict Northern Uganda: A Case of Amuru District AU - Simple Ouma AU - Kenneth Odong Obita AU - Turyasima Mananura AU - Acca Harriet Omara AU - Florence Nabbale AU - Moses Toe Rama AU - Caroline Cephas Adong AU - Mpora Beatrice Odongkara AU - Emmanuel Igwaro Odongo-Aginya AU - Silvia Awor Y1 - 2018/03/15 PY - 2018 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15 DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15 T2 - Science Journal of Public Health JF - Science Journal of Public Health JO - Science Journal of Public Health SP - 61 EP - 65 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7950 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20180602.15 AB - Background: Teenage marriage eventually lead to teenage pregnancy with all it associated adverse consequences. Moreover, teenagers are less likely to utilize antenatal care and as well exhibit sub-optimal neonatal care compared to adult women. Thus, the need to report on teenage marriage in order to inform policy makers to provide necessary teenage sexual reproductive health services with relevant policies especially in post-conflict settings like Northern Uganda. Objectives: To describe prevalence and determinants of teenage marriage in post-conflict Northern Uganda. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data was collected from 424 females of reproductive age using pre-tested semi-structured questionnaires. Univariate and bivariate analyses were carried out using SPSS 16.0. Results: Mean age of study participants was 27 years. Majority of participants (79.0%) and their husbands (67.2%) were peasant farmers. Majority of participants were married (85.8%) with about one-fifth (18.1%) of the participants pregnant at the time of interview. Among the married participants, majority of the participants (65.1%) and their husbands (64.2%) had only primary education. Majority (86.3%) of the married women first got married as teenagers. Mean age at first marriage was 17 years. Women in this population generally got married at early ages. Women who got married at younger ages were lowly educated and generally never had formal paid employments. Likewise, women who got married at younger ages were generally married to lowly educated men with no formal employments. In contrast, women who married later in life had better education and married men with better education level and above all such couples tend to engage in formal paid employments. In addition, women who got married at older ages had less number of live births and desired to give birth to less children than women who got married at younger ages. Conclusions: Women in post-conflict Northern Uganda are experiencing high level of teenage marriage. This put them at risk of not attaining necessary education and employable skills hence poverty. This calls for targeted interventions from both government and development partners in order to reverse the current trend in teenage marriage due to inequality in formal education and other social amenities and thus save the girl child from poverty. VL - 6 IS - 2 ER -
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