Risk factors associated with the practice of child marriage among Roma girls in Serbia.

David R Hotchkiss,Anastasia J Gage,Claudia Cappa,Deepali Godha

doi:10.1186/s12914-016-0081-3

David R Hotchkiss, Anastasia J Gage + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12914-016-0081-3

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Abstract

BackgroundRelatively little research on the issue of child marriage has been conducted in European countries where the overall prevalence of child marriage is relatively low, but relatively high among marginalized ethnic sub-groups. The purpose of this study is to assess the risk factors associated with the practice of child marriage among females living in Roma settlements in Serbia and among the general population and to explore the inter-relationship between child marriage and school enrollment decisions.MethodsThe study is based on data from a nationally representative household survey in Serbia conducted in 2010 – and a separate survey of households living in Roma settlements in the same year. For each survey, we estimated a bivariate probit model of risk factors associated with being currently married and currently enrolled in school based on girls 15 to 17 years of age in the nationally representative and Roma settlements samples.ResultsThe practice of child marriage among the Roma was found to be most common among girls who lived in poorer households, who had less education, and who lived in rural locations. The results of the bivariate probit analysis suggest that, among girls in the general population, decisions about child marriage school attendance are inter-dependent in that common unobserved factors were found to influence both decisions. However, among girls living in Roma settlements, there is only weak evidence of simultaneous decision making.ConclusionThe study finds evidence of the interdependence between marriage and school enrollment decisions among the general population and, to a lesser extent, among the Roma. Further research is needed on child marriage among the Roma and other marginalized sub-groups in Europe, and should be based on panel data, combined with qualitative data, to assess the role of community-level factors and the characteristics of households where girls grow up on child marriage and education decisions.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12914-016-0081-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

Little research on the issue of child marriage has been conducted in European countries where the overall prevalence of child marriage is relatively low, but relatively high among marginalized ethnic subgroups
The purpose of this study is to assess the risk factors associated with the practice of child marriage among females living in Roma settlements in Serbia, and to make comparisons with females living among the general population
In 2010, 50.4 % of women 20 to 24 years of age reported being first married before age 18 (Fig. 1) and 13.2 % were first married before age 15. This is considerably higher than the rates among females of the same age in the general population (5.0 % first married before age 18, 0.9 % first married before age 15), and among females living in the poorest 20 % of households in the general population (13.2 % and 1.8 % respectively). (See Additional file 1 for 95 % confidence intervals for estimates of the percentages first marrying before age 18)

Summary

Introduction

Little research on the issue of child marriage has been conducted in European countries where the overall prevalence of child marriage is relatively low, but relatively high among marginalized ethnic subgroups. A practice that is driven by poverty, social norms, and discrimination against girls, child marriage has emerged as an important social issue in recent years due in part to increased concerns among reproductive health advocates about the harmful consequences for young women marrying too early [2, 3]. Little research has been conducted in Central and Eastern European countries where the prevalence of child marriage on average is relatively low among the overall population, but relatively high among marginalized ethnic sub-groups, the Roma. In 2010, about half (50.4 %) of Roma women 20 to 24 years of age reported first marrying before age 18, compared to 5.0 % of women of the same age group living in the general population in Serbia [7]

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