The determinants of early marriage and under-five child mortality in Afghanistan

Shonazarova, Shirin and Eshchanov, Bahtiyor (2020): The determinants of early marriage and under-five child mortality in Afghanistan.

Abstract

We use data from the Demographic and Health Survey of Afghanistan 2015 to conduct a study of determinants of early marriage and effect of early marriage on child mortality under five years. In order to conduct this study, binary logit, probit (Marginal effects) and OLS regression methods were used. The first step in this study was to find the determinants of early marriage and conduct binary logit analysis. According to the result, it was found that the main determinants of early marriage are the education of women, employment status, exposure to media, ethnicity, current age group, marital status, number of wives and unions, region, place of residence and age at first sexual activity. Education, ethnicity, age at first sexual activity significantly affect the likelihood of early marriage. Moreover, after finding the determinants of early marriage, we analyzed the effect of early marriage on child mortality under five years using probit (Marginal effects) and OLS regression methods. According to the results obtained after the analysis, it was found that early marriage increases the likelihood of child mortality by 17.57%, 17.54% and 14.28% among all children, sons and daughters, respectively. According to OLS estimates, early marriage increases child mortality by 0.04, 0.02, and 0.02 among all children, sons, and daughters, respectively. Moreover, it was found that number of wives, years since first cohabitation, contraceptive usage, age at first birth, place of residence, wealth index, number of family members, women and children under five years and ethnicity affect the likelihood and number of children mortality under five years. Also, we address endogeneity problem of origin household selection.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: early marriage, children mortality, determinants of early marriage, Afghanistan
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I38 - Government Policy ; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I39 - Other; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility ; Family Planning ; Child Care ; Children ; Youth; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination

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