Association between Education and Intra-Regional Variation on Child Marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Child marriage is a bane to sustainable development, as it has been associated with the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, intimate partner violence, and maternal mortality. This study examines the association between education and child marriage is sub-Saharan Africa. A subsample of one thousand, four hundred and sixty-one females, aged 12 years to 18 years was extracted from the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey dataset. The independent variables were intra-regional groups and education. The dependent variable was child marriage (<18 years). The associations between intra-regional groups and education on child marriage were examined from the ever-given birth subsample to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs, using binary logistic regression models. There was a positive significant relationship between maternal education (χ² = 65.5, p < 0.05) and intra-regional ethnic groups (χ² = 106.58, p < 0.05) on child marriage. The odds were higher among the Hausa/Fulani groups that do not have a formal education (OR = 1.34; p < 0.05), have a poor financial status (OR = 1.67; p < 0.05), and those who had previously terminated a pregnancy (OR = 1.24; p < 0.05). The findings indicate that the intra-regional ethnic group affiliation and the lack of a formal education influences the incidence of child marriage, especially among socio-economically disadvantage females. Interventions aimed at curtailing child marriage should utilize community-based education to engage relevant stakeholders within the grassroots.

1. Introduction

Child marriage is an important development issue that has serious health, social, political, and human rights implications. Out of the 140 million girls who were married before the age of 18 years, globally, 50 million were less than 15 years old. This translates to 39,000 girls each day [1]. The highest prevalence of child-marriages are in South Asia (48%), Africa (42%), and Latin America (29%) [2]. In ascending form, the 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriages in Africa are Niger (75%), Chad (68%), the Central African Republic (68%), Guinea (63%), Mozambique (56%), Mali (55%), Burkina Faso (52%), South Sudan (52%), Malawi (50%), and Nigeria (43%) [3]. In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria has one of the highest absolute numbers of child marriages, where 43% and 20% are married before age 18 years and 15 years, respectively [4]. This implies that one in four girls has given birth, or is married before 15 years of age.

The age at first sexual intercourse, cohabitation, and marriage exposes young girls to the risk of pregnancy, childbirth, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, violence at home, divorce, vesicovaginal fistula, illiteracy, out-of-school children, maternal and child death, poverty, among others [2,5,6]. Child marriage has been implicated for intergenerational poverty, due to the limited or lack of a formal education, a large family size, premature birth, post-partum depression, poor health, and a low socioeconomic status [4,7]. Scholars have associated child marriage as an infringement on the fundamental human right of the young girl, which prevent them from bonding with their peers, developing their minds and becoming mature before making critical decisions that is a significant milestone in their lives [8,9]. Child marriage is the exploitation of the young girl, which is contrary to the perception that child marriage prevents a girl from promiscuity [10].

The government of Nigeria has made concerted efforts to curtail the prevalence of child marriage, such as adopting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in the year 1991, and the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in the year 2003. The country had also established the Child Right Act in 2003. Despite these efforts, child marriage is still relatively high in the country. Child marriage has biological and behavioral undertones that permeate through the culture, norms, and way of life of a community to perpetuate health risks towards children less than 18 years of age. For instance, patriarchy is widely practiced in Nigeria, where about 27% of married girls are in polygamous households [4]. Furthermore, due to poverty and ignorance, some parents give their children in marriage to prove her fecundity [11]. Some communities believe that sexual intercourse with a virgin would likely cure HIV. This propels some infected men to engage in sexual intercourse with younger teenage girls, in order to obtain a cure for HIV [12]. It is not surprising, therefore, that incidence of HIV is associated with child marriages [13]. Child marriage is likely to increase as Nigeria’s youth population continues to expand.

There exists ethnic variations in cultural practices and fertility behavior [14,15], which may influence the reproductive experience and determine contraception use. This is because the attitude of people differs within and across communities. In addition, the accepted norms, religious beliefs, and cultural values that shape people’s way of life differ from one space to another. Thus, child mortality, fertility behavior, and migration patterns differ by ethnic group characteristics. However, to the best of our knowledge, ethnic variations have not been adequately researched, as influencing child marriage, despite several studies highlighting the dynamics of ethnicity on the demographic characteristics in Africa. Furthermore, the effects of the knowledge of contraceptives remain unknown among married children.

It is pertinent to understand the association between maternal education and intra-regional ethnic variations on child marriage in Nigeria, to reduce the prevalence of divorce, domestic violence, maternal mortality, and sexually transmitted diseases among children under the age of 18. This is essential, considering the high fertility rate in Nigeria that spans across the region and ethnic groups. Child marriage endangers the life of the girl and recycles intergenerational poverty, especially, for low-income individuals [11]. Thus, a properly structured educational system that interacts with each community will awaken the consciousness of people towards this practice. Furthermore, despite the role played by education, for improving the socioeconomic status of people, the recent reports from the [4] show that a large proportion of females under 18 have no formal education. This has implications in a country where child marriage persists.

Against the above backdrop, the Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 is aimed at “eliminating all forms of harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations” by 2030 [16]. If the menace associated with child marriage is not adequately tackled and solved, there is a likelihood that achieving the Sustainable Development Goal will remain a dream, especially in Nigeria were progress is invisible. Target 5C of the Sustainable Development Goal requires sound and enforceable policies for the promotion of women rights at all levels. In adherence to this, the Federal Government of Nigeria. in the year 2003, legislated the Act abolishing child marriage. However, in a country with 36 states which has different domestic laws, it is difficult to implement the Child Right Act in Nigeria as some states have failed to adopt or integrate it into their prevailing domestic laws.

Studies on ethnicity have largely focused on fertility [14,17], mortality [18], migration [19], and HIV [20]. There is a paucity of information on the relationship between intra-regional ethnic variations, education, and child marriage, especially in Nigeria with a growing number of youthful populations. In addition, little attention has been paid to how knowledge of contraceptives within intra-regional ethnic variations influences the prevalence of child marriage. This has implications on the success of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the association between intra-regional ethnic variations and education on child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, using Nigeria as a case study.

2. Research Questions

This study was guided by the following research questions:

• What are the associations between education and intra-regional ethnic groups?
• How does intra-regional ethnic group affiliation influence the prevalence of child marriage?
• What are the effects of maternal education on early child marriage?

3. Theory of the Planned Behavior

The theory of planned behavior shapes our understanding on how people’s behavior changes overtime. This [21] was propounded by Icek Adjen. The theory was an improvement on [22]. The improvement of the theory was evident in the inclusion of the third construct “Perceived Behavioral Control” which refers to an individual’s belief or ability to undertake an action. Perceived behavioral control is determined by environmental and contextual characteristics. The idea behind this construct is that an individual will perform a certain action or behavior if he/she thinks, believes or perceives that such an action would produce a favorable outcome for him/her. This is only possible because that individual has some level of control over the situation.

The theory of planned behavior is guided by three constructs, which are attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The first construct, which is “attitude” connotes the sum total of feelings, knowledge, and prejudice towards an action as either good or bad. In this context, if a girl perceives that it is bad to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse at a very tender age, the tendency of her refraining from such an act would be high. Thus, she may likely not think of getting pregnant and giving birth to children. The second construct, which is “subjective norm” connotes the perception of the significant others, such as friends, class-mates, parents, cousins, and other relatives towards the intended act/action. For instance, a female student may ask herself the following questions: What would be the likely reaction of my parents, if I become pregnant while still going to high school? Would I be driven away from home? What would be the reaction of my friends and family members? How would society look at me? Do I really care about the expectation of all of these people towards my intended action? If the individual values the expectations of society and the significant others, he/she may not perform such an action, i.e if the significant others perceive his/her action as wrong or bad. However, the reverse is the case if the action is accepted within his/her space. The third construct, which is “perceived behavioral control” has been explained above. The addition of the third construct makes the theory of planned behavior the most appropriate theory to predict the association between education and child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, using Nigeria as a reflection. Furthermore, policies and intervention studies that used the theory of planned behavior have found that attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control are germane to influencing people’s behavior. This makes the theory of planned behavior an indispensable tool for explaining the association between education and child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa in particular, and globally in general.

The theory argues that there is a connection between people’s intentions and final action or behavior. This is because the intention of an individual is predicted by the attitude, perceived behavioral control, and subjective norm. The combination of intention and behavioral control are a knitted jigsaw puzzle that informs people’s daily activities and actions. This theory is suitable for explaining teenage pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa because the prevalence of teen pregnancies in the region varies between time and space. Even within a country, there exists regional and intra-regional variations of teen pregnancies along with ethnic groups. This has implications for policy and decision making, both within and outside a country.

In addition, religious tutelage and guidance influences the way of life of people in a community. This is made seamless by cultural and subjective norms that are geared towards the accepted or rejected values within a community, which determines the appropriate or inappropriate ways of living in a society. Thus, there is little behavioral control to the timing of first sexual intercourse among teens in sub-Saharan Africa. However, for many families in Nigeria, early marriage is not a crime as it makes mothers and children grow simultaneously. It is perceived that if a family is fortunate, in the future the young child may be wealthy enough to take care of the financial needs of their older parents. These normative beliefs make it easier to accept early teen pregnancy and marriage. Even in a household where a teenage girl becomes pregnant out of marriage or while still living in her parent’s home, parents often do not encourage abortion due to the desire to wean their grandchild. Therefore, the stronger the attitude and subjective norms, the more likely it is to predict a person’s intention to perform the behavior.

Teenage pregnancy is a public health concern as younger mothers who are in their teenage years are more at risk of maternal mortality during childbirth. Furthermore, children born to teen mothers are more susceptible to a low birth weight, when compared to mothers who are not teenagers. The situation is precarious when younger teenage mothers experience complications during childbirth. Therefore, it is germane to examine the implications of education on the prevalence of child marriage, especially along the pathway of intra-regional ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa, using Nigeria as a case study. The use of Nigeria as a case study is suitable, considering the effect of its population in the sub-Saharan region of Africa.

4. Data and Methods

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with an estimated population of 201 million [23]. The country has 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) which were segmented into ethnic groups and regions: North-Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, South-South, and Southwest. According to [24], there are over 400 ethnic groups in Nigeria, each with its distinct language, norms, and cultural practices. The country has a young population with about 48% below the age of 18 years of age. A national report shows that 35% of the female population in the country does not have a formal education and almost half (40.1%) of its population is poor [25].

The sample for this study was drawn from the dataset of the [4], after obtaining permission to download the dataset from ICF Macro Inc., USA. The survey was the sixth in the series of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey with representative data on the demographics, households, health, and contraception use among women of reproductive age, between 12 and 49. The 2018 NDHS has a sample size of 46,000 women aged 15–49 years. The analyses for this study were from a stratified self-weighted probability sample size of 1406 females between the ages of 12 and 18. The females included were (1) those within 12–18 years whether married or not; (2) those within 12–18 years who were pregnant or had given birth. Contextually, females aged between 12 and 18 years were used because childbirth is common within that age bracket in Nigeria [4].

4.1. Variable Measurement

Table 1. Variable measurements.

Variable	Coding and Definition	Measurement
Dependent variable	Child marriage	Married? 1 = Yes 0 = No
Independent variable Intra-regional group	NC—North-Central NE—Northeast NW—Northwest SE—Southeast SS—South-South SW—Southwest	Married and ever given birth 1 = Yes 0 = No
2. Maternal education level	No education Primary Secondary Tertiary	Responses were categorized as: 1 = Yes 0 = No
Covariate Knowledge of contraception	Knowledge of the ovulatory cycle Used health scheme Ever terminated a pregnancy Ever used contraceptives	Responses were categorized as: 1 = Yes 0 = No

displays the measurements of the dependent and independent variables of the study. Child marriage is the dependent variable with a response (yes/no) to the question of “have you ever given birth?”. In addition, not all females under 18 are married, thus, the group of females aged between 12 and 18 who had given birth was conceptualized as child marriage, within the context of Nigeria. The independent variables are maternal education and intra-regional groups. The responses for maternal education include “No education, primary school, secondary school, and tertiary education”. Intra-regional groups was categorized, based on region; North-Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, South-South, and Southwest. Fayehun and Omololu [26] have used a similar classification in their study on ethnicity and child survival in Nigeria. Further classifications can be found in Table 1 below:

4.2. Analyses

The dependent variable was child marriage. This was measured by asking children under 18 if they had ever given birth. A binary response (yes or no) was elicited from the mothers. The independent variables were intra-regional groups, which was categorized, based on the region: North-Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, South-South, and Southwest. The second independent variable was the maternal level of education (no education, primary, secondary, and tertiary education). The covariates used in the study were the knowledge of the ovulatory cycle (during a period, after a period, in the middle of the cycle, before a period begins); contraceptive use (not using, pills, IUD, injections, condom, periodic abstinence, withdrawing, implants, LAM); National Health Insurance Scheme (yes or no); and ever terminated pregnancy (yes or no). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Chi-square was used to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. A logistic regression model was used to examine the influence of the intra-regional group and maternal education on child marriage. The first model examines the odds of education on child marriage, the second model adds intra-regional groups, and the third model adds the selected socio-demographic characteristics, while the fourth model adds the covariates: knowledge of the ovulatory cycle, contraceptive use, usage of a health insurance scheme, and a terminated pregnancy.

4.3. Results

Of the 1461 teenage mothers surveyed in Nigeria, 57% were from the Northern ethnic group, while 43% were from the Southern part of Nigeria. The majority of the teenage married females in Northeast and Northwest Nigeria had no formal education (73%; 79%). There is also an indication that girls are married at a younger age in the North, rather than in the South, and a significant positive association (χ² = 620.596, p < 0.05) between intra-regional groups and maternal education. Females with higher education qualifications were less likely to be married at a younger age, when compared to other teenagers with secondary school qualifications and below, as highlighted in

Table 2. Association between maternal education and intra-regional ethnic groups.

	Education
Intra-Regional Group	No Education	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary	Chi-Square	p-Value
North-Central	38%	15%	46%	1%	620.596	0.000
Northeast	73%	15%	12%	0%
Northwest	79%	10%	11%	0%
Southeast	1%	16%	82%	1%
South-South	3%	12%	85%	0%
Southwest	11%	10%	79%	0%

below.

Table 3. Association between intra-regional groups and Child Marriage.

Intra-Regional Group	12 yrs	13 yrs	14 yrs	15 yrs	16 yrs	17 yrs	18 yrs	Chi-Square	p-Value
North-Central	4.9%	5.8%	6.2%	12.8%	7.9%	30.1%	12.4%	106.478	0.000
Northeast	0.0%	3.7%	8.7%	21.5%	29.5%	25.3%	11.4%
Northwest	0.9%	3.0%	9.7%	20.1%	32.5%	23.2%	10.6%
Southeast	0.0%	4.3%	5.3%	20.2%	18.1%	28.8%	23.4%
South-South	0.0%	1.7%	8.5%	17.8%	23.7%	27.1%	21.2%
Southwest	0.0%	0.0%	5.8%	5.8%	25.0%	40.4%	23.1%

shows a matrix of intra-regional groups and child marriage. It highlights the breakdown of child marriage by age from 12 to 18 years within the regional groups in Nigeria. The data shows that child marriage was higher within the ages of 16–17 years, in Nigeria. It is only in the North-Central and Northwest groups that there exists a proportion of child marriage at age 12 and a higher proportion within ages 12 to 14 years. This shows that child marriage commenced in the North-Central at a very early age than in other ethnic groups in Nigeria. There is a moderate association between intra-regional groups (χ² = 106.478, p < 0.05) and child marriage.

Table 4. The association between maternal education and child marriage.

	Child Marriage
Highest Level of Education	12 yrs	13 yrs	14 yrs	15 yrs	16 yrs	17 yrs	18 yrs	Chi-Squared	p-Value
No education	1.1%	3.2%	8.7%	21%	32.1%	23.9%	10.0%	65.894	0.000
Primary	0.0%	5.3%	9.6%	22.5%	25.1%	25.6%	11.8%
Secondary	1.6%	3.2%	6.9%	12.7%	24.3%	31.0%	20.1%
Tertiary	0.0%	0.0%	25%	0.0%	75%	0.0%	0.00%

Source: NDHS, 2018.

shows a significant association between maternal education (χ² = 65.894, p < 0.05) and child marriage. Child marriage was very high at the age of 16, especially among females with no education, but this declines as education increases. This shows that as female education increases, child marriage is likely to be reduced.

Table 5. The association between female reproductive experience and child marriage.

Knowledge of the Ovulatory Cycle	N (%)	Chi-Square	p-Value
During her period	14 (1%)	82.631	0.000
Once a period has ended	799 (55%)
Middle of the cycle	267 (18%)
Prior to the start of a period	248 (17%)
At any time	81 (6%)
Others	2 (0.1%)
Does not know	50 (3.4%)
Contraceptive
Not using	1373 (94%)	190.166	0.000
Pill	6 (0.4%)
IUD	1 (0.1%)
Injections	15(1.0%)
Male condom	22 (1.5%)
Periodic abstinence	6 (0.4%)
Withdrawing	7 (0.5%)
Other traditions	5 (0.3%)
Implants/Norplant	8 (0.5%
LAM	16 (1.1%)
Other modern methods	2 (0.1%)
NHIS
No	1453 (99%)	15.682	0.028
Yes	8 (1%)
Terminated pregnancy
No	1358 (93%)	42.208	0.000
Yes	103 (7%)

Source: NDHS, 2018.

shows that many of the respondents (55%) had poor knowledge of their ovulatory cycle until after a menstrual period, 3.4% do not know their ovulatory cycle at all, only 18% have an accurate knowledge that ovulation occurs at the middle of their menstruation cycle and this poor knowledge is associated with the large proportion of teenage pregnancies in Nigeria. There is a positive significant association between knowledge of the ovulatory cycle (χ² = 82.631, p < 0.05) and childbirth by teenagers.

Most (94%) of the respondents were not using contraceptives at the time of the survey. The majority (99%) of the respondents were not using the National Health Insurance Scheme to reduce the cost of health care management. In addition, only a few (7%) had terminated a pregnancy before the survey. This shows that poor knowledge of the ovulatory cycle without using contraceptives during sexual intercourse was responsible for the prevalence of pregnancy and childbirth among teenage children, that culminates in child marriage.

4.4. Discussion of the Findings

The debate about young girls has received renewed interest as their welfare is enshrined in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, however, most recent studies on the subject have concentrated on fertility [9], under-five mortality [27], and exploitation of young girls [9]. There are no or few studies on education, regional ethnic variation of reproductive experience, and contraceptive knowledge of the young girls and their implications. Given the diverse outcome of the reproductive experience among females of different age categories, there is a need for this study. This study examined the association between education of young girls and ethnic regional group variations on child marriage. The theory of planned behavior was utilized to predict the behavior of young females towards these variables under consideration. Our analyses show that the prevalence of child marriage was highest between 16 and 17 years of age, in Nigeria.

In addition, within the intra-regional ethnic affiliation, child marriage is common with the Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups in the northern part of Nigeria, especially, among females without a formal education. This is not surprising because many Hausa-Fulani in the northern part of the country had resisted western education [28]. Further, the Boko Haran insurgence in Northern Nigeria is associated with the rejection of western education. This was responsible for the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno State, Nigeria, in 2014 [28,29]. The theory of the planned behavior thrust that intention to reject western education, due to the beliefs, perception and other contextual cum environmental characteristics, that would propel females to show little enthusiasm towards western education. This has implications for sexual intercourse at a young age, contraceptive use, pregnancy, family planning decision making, and marriage at an early age. This study found that girls with tertiary education were less likely to be married at a tender age, irrespective of their ethnic affiliation. This was probably due to the length of years spent in secular education. (

Table 6. The odds of the effects of education and intra-regional ethnic groups on Child Marriage in Nigeria.

Characteristics	Model 1 (Odds Ratio)	Model 2 (Odds Ratio)	Model 3 (Odds Ratio)	Model 4 (Odds Ratio)
Education
No education (RC)	1.335 *** (0.928–1.921)	1.015 *** (0.575–1.791)	1.000	1.000
Primary	1.248 * (0.738–2.113)	0.904 (0.566–1.442)	0.836 (0.465–1.506)	0.818 (0.454–1.474)
Secondary and above (RC)	1.000	1.000	0.662 (0.394–1.111)	0.622 (0.369–1.049)
Ethnicity
North-Central (RC)		1.000	1.000 **	1.000
Northeast		1.030 (0.455–2.328)	0.386 (0.121–1.230)	0.367 (0.113–1.154)
Northwest		0.323 (0.130–0.803)	1.039 (0.377–2.863)	1.051 (0.381–2.899)
Southeast		0.684 (0.297–1.579)	0.749 (0.313–1.792	0.722 (0.301–1.731)
South-South		0.691 (0.270–1.771)	0.509 (0.209–1.238)	0.459 (0.188–1.123)
Southwest		0.254 (0.085–0.756)	0.295 ** (0.116–0.754)	0.277 ** (0.108–0.711)
Wealth Index
Poor			1.610 (0.886–2.927)	1.694 (0.927–3.096)
Average			1.988 *(1.101–3.592)	2.146 ** (1.180–3.902)
Rich (RC)			1.000	1.000
Place of residence
Urban (RC)			1.000	1.000
Rural			0.897 (0.570–1.411)	0.904 (0.574–1.422)
Religion
Christian (RC)			1.000	1.000
Islam			2.050 * (1.069–3.932)	2.041 * (1.060–3.932)
African Traditional Religion			0.010 (0.004–0.007)	0.010 (0.004–0.007)
Knowledge of the ovulatory cycle
No knowledge (RC)				1.000
Low knowledge				0.656 * (0.454–0.946)
High knowledge				0.443 ** (0.150–1.313)
Covered by the health scheme
Yes				0.573 * (0.113–2.907)
No (RC)				1.000
Ever terminated a pregnancy
Yes				1.242 * (0.701–2.200)
No (RC)				1.000

Significant at p < 0.05 *, p < 0.01 **, p < 0.001 *** (Asterisks are used to identify the significant levels), RC—reference category. For the model, the 95% confident intervals are shown in parenthesis.

)

The ethnic groups in Northern Nigeria have the highest prevalence of child marriage, with girls in the North-Central getting married as young as 12 years old. This contributes to the growing absolute number of child marriages in Nigeria. Since the Nigerian population has a significant effect in sub-Saharan Africa, the demographic trends and outcomes in the country most often have implications in the sub-Saharan region. Earlier studies have associated child marriage to female genital mutilation [30], domestic violence against females [8], poverty, maternal and child death [27]. The above shows that the disadvantages of child marriage supersede the advantages and it puts the life of young girls at severe risk. Furthermore, this study found that the majority of the females that were married before the age of 19 years, were not in school, therefore, revealing the significant role formal education plays in reducing child marriage. The variable education serves as an enabler or barrier to child marriage. This is not surprising for [31] had earlier reported a high prevalence of out of school children in Northern Nigeria, and this has been linked to poverty, cultural beliefs and religious affiliation.

We found evidence that fertility among children was associated with a lack of knowledge of the ovulatory cycle. These include those who were pregnant before marriage, were married due to a pregnancy, forcefully married girls, and those who are not yet married but less than 19 years old. The majority do not use contraceptive measures and this makes them susceptible to pregnancy. This is worrisome because some of these girls were forced into marriage by their parents. At the age of 12, these girls do not understand the dynamics of marriage as they were used for sexual aggrandizement and procreation. Understanding the fact that early marriage increases the length of fertility experience and outcome, our findings suggest that it will take a long time to eradicate child marriage and reduce the fertility rate in Nigeria, especially among the ethnic groups in the northern part of the country.

Due to poverty and little awareness that the registration with the National Health Insurance Scheme could be utilized to reduce the cost of accessing health care, ante-natal, and post-natal care; many girls shy away from the medical facilities when they become pregnant. This exposes them to several risks, such as maternal and child death, premature birth, low birth weight and birth complications. These findings are in tandem with [31], asserting that marriage before age 18 years of age often results in pregnancy complications, maternal and child mortality. The situation is precarious in Africa, including in Nigeria where the poverty rate is high and older men prefer to marry young females [5]. Studies have suggested that younger married females in polygynous households were often exposed to sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and domestic abuse [32]. This is because their husbands may engage in unprotected sexual intercourse with other women within the household whose health status remains unknown.

Although, different theories, such as the reason action theory, the health belief model and others have been used to explain the reproductive experience of women [33,34]. Scholars affirmed that the theory of the planned behavior is the only theory that predicts to the highest degree, the likelihood of child marriage, due to unprotected sexual intercourse, religious belief and inconsistent condom use [35,36]. This study strongly argues that the theory of the planned behavior highly predicts the association between the level of female education and regional ethnic influence on the likelihood of child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa, using Nigeria as a case study. A clearer understanding or overview of these theory-based predictors of education and child marriage, will facilitate the targeted intervention to curtail the prevalence of child marriage, which will, in turn improve the lives and the well-being of young girls in sub-Saharan Africa. This is sacrosanct to achieve the sustainable development goals.

4.4.1. Implications for Policy and Practice

Ignorance made worse by illiteracy can be a major factor impacting the prevalence of child marriage. The assumption here is that if some form of non-formal education was mainstreamed into mass education campaigns to mitigate the phenomenon, parents may become more reluctant in allowing their children to enter into an early marriage. Rather than doing so, the awareness campaign mainstreamed into mass education and adult literacy campaign programs, all over the country, can be very valuable in this case.

Fortunately, Nigeria has a national mass education commission established by law that should spearhead the mitigation being suggested here. At the state levels, there are various state agencies for mass education and/or adult and non-formal education agencies, all of which can work collaboratively to infuse profound doses of community education programs with the relevant pedagogies and andragogies, that should speedily help in putting in check the awkward existence of child marriages.

4.4.2. What Is Already Known on the Topic

Studies have established that child marriage increases fertility, maternal and child death, and it is an abuse on the fundamental human right of young girls [9,27,37]. The situation is precarious in Africa, South Asia, and in Latin America [1]. However, little is known about the effect of ethnicity and education on child marriage in Nigeria, a country with a high fertility rate and a large youthful population. This has implications for achieving Sustainable Development Goal 5.3.

4.4.3. What This Study Adds

The high rate of child marriage in Nigeria will continue for a considerable period despite the government and international organizations’ efforts to curtail the situation. Laws and policies have been made, however, there is no sign of success because it has not trickled down to the community level. This shows a gap between the policy-makers and the communities. Community-based education on the risk of child marriage is indispensable. This will help shape the perception of people towards child marriage, especially, among the large proportion of girls with no formal education. The community education would entail all stakeholders within each community to form a forum for discussing the social ills of child marriage. It is only with the involvement of each community that the scourge of child marriage can be solved. In addition, there is a need to include classes that educate children from primary schools on the knowledge of the ovulatory cycle to enable them to understand their body system at an early age. This education should be aligned along with ethnic variation, due to the differences in norms and cultures within the ethnic groups in Nigeria.

4.4.4. Limitation of the Study

Our measure of child marriage includes females that were 19 years old or younger, who were pregnant, had given birth, and were married, as provided in the dataset of the sixth Nigeria Demographics and Health Survey. The limitation of this study is that it fails to account for children in marriage only, but for all females less than 19 years of age who had given birth or were pregnant, as provided by the 2018 dataset of the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey.

4.5. Conclusions

The prevalence of child marriage is high in Nigeria, especially, among the Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups of Northern Nigeria. The major factors responsible for the persistent ethnic differential in child marriage are a poor knowledge of the ovulatory cycle, a lack of formal education, religious beliefs, and a pro-natalist culture in Nigeria. Therefore, it is unlikely that Nigeria will achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 5.3 by 2030. Interventions that incorporate ethnic concerns are needed to mitigate child marriage.

The current study employed the theory of the planned behavior, to establish the relationship between the intra-regional ethnic group affiliations and maternal education. The study shows that regions were maternal education were low was due to the social network and belief system in that space. This is because of the low esteem or priority that people in Northern Nigeria have towards western education. The decision not to graciously embrace western education is due to their evaluation of the outcome and beliefs towards it. They do not feel that western education contributes positively to their development and reproductive health experience. This is evidenced by their large population size, due to early marriage and not using family planning. In addition, poor a maternal education is a major contributor to child marriage and the large fertility size. This has micro and macro implications for the family, country and global efforts to curtail the prevalence of child marriage.

In addition, there is an intrinsic motivation for large families in the country, especially in the region dominated by the Hausa-Fulani groups. This propels early sexual intercourse without contraceptive, early conception and the prevalence of child marriage. Children who marry at an early age are likely to have a negative reproductive health experience. This is in addition to the health risk they are likely to experience when giving birth. The bane of the issue is their contribution to the globally high rate of mortality under-five, maternal mortality, out of school children, among other social and health related issues. Therefore, policy makers should put into consideration the social network, belief system and values of a community when conceiving, establishing and implementing policies directed at reducing the prevalence of child marriage, globally.

Finally, based on the above, it is obvious that global and national efforts to curtail the prevalence of child marriage should be specific and contextual to each community. Therefore, it is highly recommended that community-based education should be used by policy and decision makers when planning community related interventions. This is because, it is the community who understands their own problems and integrating policies with community related learning structures will create trust in the scheme. The overall context of each community should be considered as the methods for implementing policy differs within communities.