Impact of Child Marriage on Health of Adolescent Girls in Kaduna State, Nigeria

摘要

The study was designed to find out the impact of child marriage on health of adolescent girls in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study identified the causes of child marriage, physiological and psychological consequences of child marriage on adolescent girls. The study adopted an ex-post-facto research design. The sample size for the study was 276 married young girls in Kaduna South selected through purposive sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was a self-developed questionnaire by the researchers. The data collected were analysed using frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation. From the analysis, the results of the study revealed that most respondents got married within the age of adolescent which was 13 - 19 years; some girls were forced into child marriage due to religious and cultural beliefs. The result also showed that poverty and illiteracy were the major reasons of early marriage. Some recommendations made based on the results were that government should enforce laws against child marriage on perpetrators, government and non-organizations should organize seminars, workshops and conferences to enlighten illiterate parents on the negative impact of child marriage on health of adolescent girls and professional women should be invited to the communities to talk to girls as role models and source of inspiration.