Effects of Child Marriages in Bangladesh

Marrying off daughters at a young age is a strong social norm in many countries of the developing world. By parents it is considered a means to secure their daughters' future financially and socially. However, these child marriages are often associated with poor social and physical outcomes – as these women tend to bear children at very young ages and quit their education. Bangladesh is a country with one of the highest rates of child marriages in the developing world. This thesis examined the determinants of child marriages and their effects on poor child health outcomes (stunting and child mortality) in infants and children under the age of five in Bangladesh. Hence it utilized the nationally representative 2011 Demographic and Health Survey. The studied sample comprised of ever-married women aged 12 to 49, and children born in the five years preceding the survey. A multinomial logistic regression was used to study the determinants of child marriages, while for studying the effects on child health, binary logistic regressions were used. As for studying the socioeconomic inequality in child health, a decomposition method was applied. The findings suggest that both our outcomes are improving. In other words, the age at marriage has been increasing and the prevalence of stunting and child mortality has been declining over the past two decades. The results of the analyses showed that socioeconomic status (wealth status, education, place of residence) and religion are important predictors of age at marriage. Further, the predictors of poor child health outcomes were found to be socioeconomic status, as well, and the woman’s age at birth and access to maternal care. Results also showed that there is no socioeconomic inequality present in the age at marriage, which therefore cannot explain the socioeconomic inequality that is present in the child health outcome of stunting.