Cross-National Associations between Age at Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence among Young Women: An Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 48 Countries

Carolina V. N. Coll (), Andrea Wendt, Thiago M. Santos, Amiya Bhatia and Aluisio J. D. Barros
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Carolina V. N. Coll: International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas 96010-610, RS, Brazil
Andrea Wendt: International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas 96010-610, RS, Brazil
Thiago M. Santos: International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas 96010-610, RS, Brazil
Amiya Bhatia: Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, UK
Aluisio J. D. Barros: International Center for Equity in Health, Federal University of Pelotas, Pelotas 96010-610, RS, Brazil

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: We estimated the associations between age at first marriage and recent intimate partner violence (IPV) among women young women aged 20–24 years using data from demographic and health surveys (DHS) conducted at 48 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We fitted a multilevel logistic regression model controlling for sociodemographic covariates. Our pooled analyses revealed that age at marriage is strongly associated with past year IPV in a non-linear way, with steep reductions in violence when young women marry after age 15 and a continued decline in IPV for every year marriage is delayed up to age 24. The risk of physical IPV was 3.3 times higher among women married at age 15 (24.4%, 95% CI 19.7; 29.2%) compared to young women married at age 24 (7.5%, 95% CI 5.8; 9.2%). For sexual IPV, girls married at 15 had 2.2 times higher risk compared to those married at 24 (7.5%, 95% CI 5.6; 9.5% vs. 3.4%, 95% CI 2.7; 4.2%, respectively). For psychological IPV, the relative risk was 3.4 for the same comparison (married at 15: 20.1%, 95% CI 14.6; married at 24: 25.5% vs. 6.0%, 95% CI 3.4; 8.6%). Country specific analyses showed that, age at marriage was negatively associated with physical and psychological IPV in nearly half of the countries (n/48) and with sexual IPV in ten countries. Our findings underscore the importance of integrating violence prevention and response interventions into efforts to prevent child marriage, as well as the health, educations and social services young women access.

Keywords: gender-based violence; early marriage; intimate partner violence; violence against women; low and middle-income countries; gender inequalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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