DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2014.v02i04.034

Pages: 1320-1324

Child marriage in Nepal is considered a major barrier to the nation's social and economic development, as well as a major women's health concern. The objective of the study was to find out the factors associated with early age marriages in Rangeli VDC of Morang District. The cross-sectional study was conducted among the residents of Rangeli VDC of Morang District where 300 households were taken as subjects. Semi-structured questionnaire was used and face to face interview was conducted. Chi-square test was applied to find out the association between factors and age of marriages. Almost 69.3% of women were married before 18 years of age. Prevalence of child marriage was lower in Hindu (68.9%) than in Christian and Muslim women (85.7%) but the difference was not significant. Education of wife and husband, and economic status was found to be the important variables in explaining early age marriage (P<0.001). It was also seen that unplanned pregnancies was higher (70.6%) in early age marriage than planned pregnancies (68.3%) but the difference was not significant. Age of marriage was not significantly associated with contraceptive use. The findings of the study indicate that early age marriage was associated with low education and being poor.