What pushes males to marry underage girls? Demand-side insights of child marriage from northern Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to assess the factors that drive males to marry underage girls (i.e., girls below the legal age of marriage), with a specific focus on how individual, household, and contextual characteristics of males relate to the prevalence of child marriage in geographically isolated areas, particularly the riverine islands (chars) of Bangladesh.

STUDY

DESIGN

This study employs a cross-sectional design, which is appropriate for capturing data at a single point in time. In this case, data were collected between March and April 2024.

METHODS

With a sample of 5415 individuals, the study applied multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression to identify factors associated with male preferences for child marriage of girls. Results are reported as incidence rate ratios (IRRs).

RESULTS

Younger males had a 29 % higher likelihood of marrying underage girls (IRR = 1.29, 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 1.26, 1.33). Self-employed men were 12 % more likely to engage in child marriage (IRR = 1.14, 95 % CI = 0.99, 1.30). Socioeconomic status influenced risk, with moderately poor (IRR = 1.08, 95 % CI = 1.02, 1.14) and non-poor (IRR = 1.04, 95 % CI = 1.00, 1.08) households showing slightly elevated likelihoods of engaging in child marriage compared to extremely poor households. While the main effect of education alone was not statistically significant (IRR = 0.99, 95 % CI = 0.96, 1.02), among moderately poor households, each additional year of schooling was associated with a reduction in the risk of marrying underage girls (IRR = 0.98, 95 % CI = 0.97, 1.00). This indicates that education may act as a protective factor, especially in certain socioeconomic contexts, by reducing the influence of poverty or informal employment on child marriage decisions.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, this study reinforces the notion that, beyond economic status, education plays a critical role in reducing the tendency of men to marry underage girls. Therefore, interventions should focus on promoting male education, engaging younger and self-employed men in awareness programs, and integrating child marriage prevention strategies with broader infrastructure development efforts.