IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v273y2021ics0277953621000940.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘It is this which is normal’ A qualitative study on girl child marriage and health in conakry, Guinea

Author

Listed:
  • Efevbera, Yvette
  • Farmer, Paul

Abstract

Guinea has the eighth highest rate of girl child marriage, as 1 in 2 girls marry before age 18. The aim of this study was to qualitatively explore how women married as children in Conakry, Guinea see their marriage as related to their health and their children's health. This study draws from grounded theory. The primary data sources were in-depth interviews collected from August 2016 to January 2017; during that time, we also conducted brief ethnographic interviews, observation, and participant observation. Purposive sampling was used to identify 19 participants who first married before age 18. We used open coding for data analysis. At the first level of coding, key categories were identified. At the second level of coding, categories were grouped. We secured ethical board approval for all study procedures. Through this study, a new picture emerges about health experiences within girl child marriage. We found that most women perceived health disadvantages of their early marriages (n = 16), captured through themes of poor sexual and reproductive health, intimate partner violence and long-term consequences, poor mental health and psychosocial well-being, and other physical health conditions. Most women also perceived health advantages of their early marriages (n = 15), captured through themes of having children, “good health for me and my children,” access to health care, delaying first pregnancy and birth spacing, and positive mental health and psychosocial well-being. Sixty-three percent of participants articulated both disadvantages and advantages of their early marriages as related to health outcomes. These findings could be considered in many marital experiences in several contexts, yet women's reflections point toward the importance of the timing of their early marriages in their experiences. Change in preventing this practice and addressing its full set of consequences will not happen effectively without incorporating the voices and experiences of women affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Efevbera, Yvette & Farmer, Paul, 2021. "‘It is this which is normal’ A qualitative study on girl child marriage and health in conakry, Guinea," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:273:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621000940
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113762
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953621000940
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113762?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chata Male & Quentin Wodon, 2016. "Basic Profile of the Child Marriage in Guinea," World Bank Publications - Reports 25469, The World Bank Group.
    2. Efevbera, Yvette & Bhabha, Jacqueline & Farmer, Paul E. & Fink, Günther, 2017. "Girl child marriage as a risk factor for early childhood development and stunting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 91-101.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chauhan, Shekhar & Sekher, T.V. & Kumar, Pradeep & Srivastava, Shobhit & Patel, Ratna, 2020. "Prevalence, determinants and socio-economic inequality of early marriage among men in India," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    2. Keera Allendorf & Arland Thornton & Dirgha J. Ghimire & Linda Young-DeMarco & Colter Mitchell, 2021. "A Good Age to Marry? An Intergenerational Model of the Influence of Timing Attitudes on Entrance into Marriage," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 179-209, March.
    3. Tisdall, E. Kay M. & Cuevas-Parra, Patricio, 2020. "Challenges for children’s participation: Child activism for ending child marriage," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    4. Kauky, Monica Sebastian, 2023. "Mothers Education and Children’s Nutrition Outcomes in Tanzania," African Journal of Economic Review, African Journal of Economic Review, vol. 11(4), September.
    5. Caroline Krafft & Diana Jimena Arango & Amalia Hadas Rubin & Jocelyn Kelly, 2022. "Conflict and Girl Child Marriage: Global Evidence," HiCN Working Papers 371, Households in Conflict Network.
    6. Eric Emerson & Gwynnyth Llewellyn, 2022. "Disability among Women and Men Who Married in Childhood: Evidence from Cross-Sectional Nationally Representative Surveys Undertaken in 37 Low- and Middle-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Carolina V. N. Coll & Andrea Wendt & Thiago M. Santos & Amiya Bhatia & Aluisio J. D. Barros, 2023. "Cross-National Associations between Age at Marriage and Intimate Partner Violence among Young Women: An Analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 48 Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.
    8. Das, Tanu & Basu Roy, Tamal, 2020. "Use of time-varying and time-constant coefficient in hazard event analysis of Girl’s child marriage: A study from the Empowered Action Group (EAG) states of India," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Ayako Kohno & Teeranee Techasrivichien & S Pilar Suguimoto & Maznah Dahlui & Nik Daliana Nik Farid & Takeo Nakayama, 2020. "Investigation of the key factors that influence the girls to enter into child marriage: A meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-20, July.
    10. Lisa Cameron & Diana Contreras Suarez & Susan Wieczkiewicz, 2023. "Child marriage: using the Indonesian family life survey to examine the lives of women and men who married at an early age," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 725-756, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:273:y:2021:i:c:s0277953621000940. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.