Violence, Well-Being and Level of Participation in Formal Education among Adolescent Girls in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Role of Child Marriage

Abstract

Child marriage is a well-recognized barrier to education, and exposes girls to an increased risk of violence along with other negative health and developmental outcomes. A quantitative survey was conducted with girls selected from 14 communities in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Data from 350 girls (ages 13-14) were analyzed using mixed effects logistic regression models. Findings revealed that child marriage was associated with lower levels of participation in formal education as well as higher rates of physical, sexual and emotional violence. In particular, when adjusting for age and girls’ level of participation in formal education, being married was associated with more than a three-fold (OR: 3.23) increased risk of experiencing sexual violence (p<0.001). Married girls were also significantly more likely to affirm the belief that they would be forced to marry their perpetrator in the event that they were raped (p=0.017), suggesting that a portion of girls within this sample may have experienced this occurrence. Although higher levels of participation in formal education were associated with a reduced risk of violence among non-married girls, these differences were not observed for girls who were married. Findings reveal that child marriage has a significantly negative effect on the relationship between girls’ level of participation in formal education and experiences with violence. Taken cumulatively, findings from this study suggest an overall harmful relationship between child marriage and girls’ safety, education and well-being, and that efforts to prevent its occurrence in the DRC and beyond are urgently needed.

Forced Sex and Early Marriage: Understanding the Linkages and Norms in a Humanitarian Setting

“…However, given that this belief is substantially more prevalent among married girls—girls who are also more likely to report experiencing forced sex—our findings suggest these married girls may subscribe to this injunctive norm because they have personally experienced this sanction. These findings are further substantiated by the fact that the earlier study also found that girls’ belief that they would be forced to marry their perpetrator if raped were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing sexual violence, when adjusted for marital status and other covariates through sequential logistic regression analyses (Landis et al, 2018).…”

“…Early marriage, defined as a formal or informal marital union before the age of 18, is a globally recognized health and human rights issue disproportionately affecting an estimated 720 million females worldwide (Landis, Falb, Michelis, Bakomere, & Stark, 2018). While boys are also married off as children, girls are among those most affected, representative of discriminatory social norms.…”

“…A vast body of research has shown that early marriage negatively affects a girl’s physical, mental, and emotional development and well-being, with these impacts extending well into adulthood (Ahmed, Khan, Alia, & Noushad, 2013). Early marriage is strongly correlated with lower educational attainment, because girls are often expected to leave school to devote time to their new home, or to childbearing and child-rearing (Jensen & Thornton, 2003; Landis et al, 2018). These new responsibilities can result in separation from family and friends, and social isolation, which may in turn contribute to depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide ideation (Gage, 2013; Mathur, Greene, & Malhotra, 2003; Raj, Saggurti, Lawrence, Balaiah, & Silverman, 2010).…”

“…Early marriage is a factor for girls’ increased risk of physical and emotional abuse from their husbands and their in-laws, as well as marital rape and sexual coercion (Klugman et al, 2014; Le, Tran, Nguyen, & Fisher, 2014; Yount et al, 2016). Findings from a study conducted in South Kivu, DRC, revealed rates of physical, sexual, and emotional violence were higher for married girls aged 13-14 years compared with unmarried girls (Landis et al, 2018), and nearly 20% of sexually active 15- to 19-year-olds in the Central and West African region reported their introduction to sex was forced (Decker et al, 2015).…”

“…Despite mostly qualitative evidence that marriage after forced sex is a common practice, there is not substantive quantitative evidence on the relationship between these phenomena, particularly in conflict settings. In a recent study in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), married girls were found to report significantly higher rates of forced sex and other forms of violence as compared with unmarried girls, in addition to higher rates of support for the belief that forced marriage would result from rape (Landis et al, 2018). This article builds on these findings using the same quantitative data, while also incorporating qualitative data to elucidate the pathways that link forced sex and marriage for girls in this setting.…”