The Psychological Benefits of Marriage and Children in Rural Malawi.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Clark S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7778373 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Awareness of and responses to HIV health risks stemming from relations between sexual partners have been well documented in sub-Saharan Africa, but few studies have estimated the effects of observed HIV status on marriage decisions and outcomes. We study marriage dissolution and remarriage in rural Malawi using longitudinal data with repeated HIV and marital status measurements. Results indicate that HIV-positive individuals face greater risks of union dissolution (via both widowhood and divorce) and lower remarriage rates. Modeling studies suggest that the exclusion of HIV-positive individuals from the marriage or partnership pools will reduce the spread of HIV.
| S-EPMC4267682 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A large and increasing proportion of HIV transmissions in sub-Saharan Africa occur within marriage. Condom use within marriage could, therefore, be an important prevention strategy, but there is considerable debate about whether married couples would be willing to use condoms. This paper contributes to this debate by identifying key factors that affect the acceptability of condom use within marriage and actual condom use among men and women in rural Malawi, using three waves of longitudinal data from 2004, 2006 and 2008. Specifically, we focused on the effect of (1) entry into first marriage, (2) respondent's HIV status, HIV perceptions, and risk behaviors, and (3) spouse's HIV characteristics on condom use acceptability within marriage and actual condom use with a spouse or steady partner. Using fixed-effects regression, we found that getting married coincides with a pronounced attitudinal shift regarding the acceptability of condom use within marriage that cannot be explained by differences in fertility status or selection into marriage. In addition, we found that, for women, perceived HIV status of the respondent and spouse generally had greater influence than actual HIV status on the acceptability of condom use within marriage and actual condom use with a spouse or steady partner, even after HIV status is known; while actual HIV status and HIV risk behaviors are generally more important among men. Although condom use within marriage remained low, these findings suggest that attitudes about and use of condoms are susceptible to change and that both marital status and perceptions of risk are important influences on condom use.
| S-EPMC3811016 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundOver the last two decades, there has been significant growth in public, political, and academic awareness of polygamy. Polygamous families have distinct household problems, usually stemming from jealousy between co-wives over the husband's affections and resources. This study aimed to ascertain the psychological impact of polygamous marriage on women and children worldwide.MethodsA systematic search was performed in MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Google Scholar, and ProQuest using search terms such as "marriage" and "polygamy." Studies published from the inception of the respective databases until April 2021 were retrieved to assess their eligibility for inclusion in this study. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist was used for data extraction and the quality assessment of the included studies. The generic inverse variance and odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using RevMan software.ResultsThere were 24 studies fulfilling the eligibility criteria, and 23 studies had a low risk of bias. The pooled meta-analysis showed women in polygamous marriages had a 2.25 (95% CI: 1.20, 4.20) higher chance of experiencing depression than in monogamous marriages. Children with polygamous parents had a significantly higher Global Severity Index with a mean difference of 0.21 (95% CI: 0.10, 0.33) than those with monogamous parents.ConclusionsThe psychological impact of polygamous marriage on women and children was found to be relatively higher than monogamous marriage. Awareness of the proper practices for polygamy should be strengthened so that its adverse effects can be minimized. The agencies involved in polygamous practices should broaden and enhance their understanding of the correct practice of polygamy.
| S-EPMC8667458 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is increasing interest in the ability of cash transfers to facilitate safe transitions to adulthood in low-income settings; however, evidence from scaled-up government programming demonstrating this potential is scarce. Using two experimental evaluations of unconditional cash transfers targeted to ultra-poor and labor-constrained households over approximately three years in Malawi and Zambia, we examine whether cash transfers delayed early marriage and pregnancy among youth aged 14 to 21 years at baseline. Although we find strong impacts on poverty and schooling, two main pathways hypothesized in the literature, we find limited impacts on safe transition outcomes for both males and females. In addition, despite hypotheses that social norms may constrain potential impacts of cash transfer programs, we show suggestive evidence that pre-program variation in social norms across communities does not significantly affect program impact. We conclude with policy implications and suggestions for future research.
| S-EPMC6662603 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Despite an understanding of the circumstances of child marriage, including how it limits agency and erodes childhood support systems, not much is known about the relationship between child marriage and mental health of child brides, especially in the sub-Saharan African context. To address this gap, we use large-scale population-based data from ever-married women aged 18-45 in Niger (n?=?2764) and Ethiopia (n?=?4149) to examine the association of child marriage with overall psychological well-being and its sub-domains: depression, anxiety, positive well-being, vitality, self-control and general health. We complement this with qualitative data from Ethiopia to further contextualize the psychological well-being of child brides. METHODS:Multivariate linear regressions were conducted to estimate the association between child marriage and overall psychological well-being and its sub-domains. Thematic qualitative analysis was conducted to further understand the lives of child brides. RESULTS:Our regression analysis found significant negative associations between very early marriage (marriage at 15?years or earlier) and overall psychological well-being in both Niger and Ethiopia. With the exception of self-control, all sub-domains of psychological well-being - depression, anxiety, positive well-being, vitality and general health - were negatively associated with very early marriage. In addition, in the qualitative analysis, Ethiopian child brides reported suffering emotional distress and depression induced by the burden of handling marital responsibilities at an early age. CONCLUSION:The study highlights that even in settings where child marriage is normative, marrying very early is associated with negative outcomes. Further research is needed to understand the mechanisms that make those married during early adolescence particularly vulnerable to psychological distress, so that programs can address those vulnerabilities.
| S-EPMC6670185 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundChild marriage in Malawi is a significant problem with 42.1% of women 20-24 married by age 18. In 2017 the Malawi government formalized legislation to make marriage under age 18 illegal; violators are subject to fines. While leveraging laws to reduce child marriage is common, the enactment of laws and their enforcement has led to some novel practices. One such practice observed in Malawi is marriage withdrawal, where the community intervenes when a child marriage has taken place to force the girl to return to her natal home.MethodsThis paper is a qualitative analysis of perceptions regarding marriage withdrawal. We conducted focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with married and unmarried adolescents, parents of adolescents, and key community members in Mangochi and Nkhata Bay. Data were collected as part of an evaluation of the More Than Brides Alliance program aimed at delaying marriage and improving access to sexual and reproductive health services in Malawi.ResultsThe knowledge that violation of marriage laws entails substantial fines is widespread and marriage withdrawals are seen by some respondents as a way of enforcing the spirit of child marriage laws while avoiding fines. Some respondents suggest that enforcement of marriage laws has an unintended effect of driving marriages underground. One important disconnect between the laws and the realities of child marriage practices in these communities is that the law holds parents responsible for the marriage and for preventing it, while parents do not necessarily exercise control, particularly when the marriage is precipitated by pregnancy. While parents and other adults view withdrawals as an acceptable resolution of a problematic child marriage, girls noted many drawbacks for withdrawn girls such as stigma and limited education and livelihood opportunities once withdrawn.ConclusionsOur exploration of perceptions about marriage laws suggest that the imposition of fines may have some unintended consequences, both driving the practice underground and encouraging practices to evade fines, and may be associated with unintended consequences for adolescent girls. Programs to address child marriage should include other approaches that address more distal drivers including poverty and lack of alternatives to child marriage.Trial registrationThis work is part of an RCT registered August 4, 2016 in the AEA RCT registry identified as: AEARCTR-0001463 . See: https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1463.
| S-EPMC8268505 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The world's human population is becoming concentrated into cities, giving rise to concerns that it is becoming increasingly isolated from nature. Urban public greenspaces form the arena of many people's daily contact with nature and such contact has measurable physical and psychological benefits. Here we show that these psychological benefits increase with the species richness of urban greenspaces. Moreover, we demonstrate that greenspace users can more or less accurately perceive species richness depending on the taxonomic group in question. These results indicate that successful management of urban greenspaces should emphasize biological complexity to enhance human well-being in addition to biodiversity conservation.
| S-EPMC2390667 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Existing research has found that parental migration may negatively impact the psychological adjustment of left-behind children. However, limited longitudinal research has examined if and how future orientation (individual protective factor) and social support (contextual protective factor) are associated with the indicators of psychological adjustment (i.e., life satisfaction, school satisfaction, happiness, and loneliness) of left-behind children. In the current longitudinal study, we examined the differences in psychological adjustment between left-behind children and non-left behind children (comparison children) in rural areas, and explored the protective roles of future orientation and social support on the immediate (cross-sectional effects) and subsequent (lagged effects) status of psychological adjustment for both groups of children, respectively. The sample included 897 rural children (Mage = 14.09, SD = 1.40) who participated in two waves of surveys across six months. Among the participants, 227 were left-behind children with two parents migrating, 176 were with one parent migrating, and 485 were comparison children. Results showed that, (1) left-behind children reported lower levels of life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness, as well as a higher level of loneliness in both waves; (2) After controlling for several demographics and characteristics of parental migration among left-behind children, future orientation significantly predicted life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness in both cross-sectional and longitudinal regression models, as well as loneliness in the longitudinal regression analysis. Social support predicted immediate life satisfaction, school satisfaction, and happiness, as well as subsequent school satisfaction. Similar to left-behind children, comparison children who reported higher scores in future orientation, especially future expectation, were likely to have higher scores in most indicators of psychological adjustment measured at the same time and subsequently. However, social support seemed not exhibit as important in the immediate status of psychological adjustment of comparison children as that of left-behind children. Findings, implications, and limitations of the present study were discussed.
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Project description:Undernutrition may affect fecundability, but few studies have quantified this relationship. In rural Bangladesh, where newlywed couples face strong pressures to become pregnant, we assessed fecundability, estimated by time to pregnancy (TTP), and its association with preconceptional thinness among nulligravid, newlywed female adolescents. During 2001-2002, 5,516 newlywed women aged 12-19 years participated in a home-based, 5-weekly surveillance system for 5-6 years to enrol pregnant women into an antenatal vitamin A or ?-carotene supplementation trial. Thinness was defined as a left mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) ?21.5 versus >21.5 cm. At each visit, staff obtained a monthly history of menstruation. Report of amenorrhea prompted a human chorionic gonadotropin urine test to confirm pregnancy. We derived hazard ratios (with 95% confidence intervals [CI]) for pregnancy and Kaplan-Meier curves for TTP. Ages of women at marriage and pregnancy detection (mean ± standard deviation) were 15.3 ± 1.9 and 17.0 ± 1.9 years, respectively. A total of 82.7% of thinner and 87.3% of better nourished women became pregnant. The unadjusted and multivariable relative hazard of ever becoming pregnant was 0.84 (95% CI [0.78, 0.89]) and 0.86 (95% CI [0.81, 0.92]), respectively, and TTP was 12 weeks longer (median [95% CI]: 63 [58-68] vs. 51 [49-54]) in women whose MUAC was ?21.5 versus >21.5 cm. In rural Bangladesh, thin adolescent newlywed girls have a lower probability of becoming pregnant and experience a longer time to pregnancy.
| S-EPMC7296800 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Intergenerational transfer of wealth has been proposed as playing a pivotal role in the evolution of human sibling relationships. Sibling rivalry is assumed to be more marked when offspring compete for limited heritable resources, which are crucial for reproductive success (e.g., land and livestock); whereas in the absence of heritable wealth, related siblings may cooperate. To date, comparative studies undertaken to support this evolutionary assumption have been confounded by other socioecological factors, which vary across populations, e.g., food sharing and intergroup conflict. In this article we explore effects of sibling competition and cooperation for agricultural resources, marriage, and reproduction in one contemporary Ethiopian agropastoralist society. Here recent changes in land tenure policy, altering transfers of land from parents to offspring, present a unique framework to test the importance of intergenerational transfers of wealth in driving sibling competition, while controlling for socioeconomic biases. In households where land is inherited, the number of elder brothers reduces a man's agricultural productivity, marriage, and reproductive success, as resources diminish and competition increases with each additional sibling. Where land is not inherited (for males receiving land directly from the government and all females) older siblings do not have a competitive effect and in some instances may be beneficial. This study has wider implications for the evolution of human family sizes. Recent changes in wealth transfers, which have driven sibling competition, may be contributing to an increased desire for smaller family sizes.
| S-EPMC3038728 | biostudies-literature