‘If she gets married when she is young, she will give birth to many kids’: a qualitative study of child marriage practices amongst nomadic pastoralist communities in Kenya

Lowe, H, Kenny, L, Hassan, R, Bacchus, LJ, Njoroge, P, Dagadu, NA, Hossain, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1878-8145 and Cislaghi, B, 2022. ‘If she gets married when she is young, she will give birth to many kids’: a qualitative study of child marriage practices amongst nomadic pastoralist communities in Kenya. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 24 (7), pp. 886-901. ISSN 1369-1058

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Abstract

Child marriage is associated with adverse health and social outcomes for women and girls. Among pastoralists in Kenya, child marriage is believed to be higher compared to the national average. This paper explores how social norms and contextual factors sustain child marriage in communities living in conflict-affected North Eastern Kenya. In-depth interviews were carried out with nomadic and semi-nomadic women and men of reproductive age in Wajir and Mandera counties. Participants were purposively sampled across a range of age groups and community types. Interviews were analysed thematically and guided by a social norms approach. We found changes in the way young couples meet and evidence for negative perceptions of child marriage due to its impact on the girls’ reproductive health and gender inequality. Despite this, child marriage was common amongst nomadic and semi-nomadic women. Two overarching themes explained child marriage practices: 1) gender norms, and 2) desire for large family size. Our findings complement the global literature, while contributing perspectives of pastoralist groups. Contextual factors of poverty, traditional pastoral lifestyles and limited formal education opportunities for girls, supported large family norms and gender norms that encouraged and sustained child marriage.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Culture, Health and Sexuality
Creators:	Lowe, H., Kenny, L., Hassan, R., Bacchus, L.J., Njoroge, P., Dagadu, N.A., Hossain, M. and Cislaghi, B.
Publisher:	Informa UK Limited
Date:	1 July 2022
Volume:	24
Number:	7
ISSN:	1369-1058
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1080/13691058.2021.1893821 DOI 1622387 Other
Rights:	© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Laura Ward
Date Added:	28 Nov 2022 09:28
Last Modified:	28 Nov 2022 09:28
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/47517

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