Parental Verbal Violence and Attitudes towards Early Marriage among Unmarried Adolescent Girls in Niger

Amani Hachimou, Groupe de Recherche et d’Action pour le Développement (GRADE AFRICA)
Souleymane Amadou G, GRADE Africa
Aboubacar C Nouridine, GRADE Africa
Nouhou AbdoulMoumouni, GRADE Africa

This paper examines the relationship between parental verbal violence and attitudes towards early marriage among unmarried adolescent girls in Niger. Cross sectional study was conducted among 519 unmarried adolescent girls aged 10-19 as part of the baseline assessment of the project Child Marriage Prevention in the region of Zinder, Niger. The outcome variable is attitude towards early marriage. Preliminary results demonstrated that unmarried girls who have experienced parental verbal violence were almost 5 times more likely to have positive attitude towards early marriage (aOR=4.94; p=0.000) than those who have not experienced parental verbal violence. Unmarried girls who currently attend school (aOR=0.48; 95%; p=0.007), aged 10-14 (aOR=0.31; 95%; p=0.000) and those who currently run an income generative activity (aOR=0.55; p=0.023) are less likely to have positive attitude towards early marriage. Programs to prevent early marriage should fight parental violence, promote young girl education and income generative activities of parents.