Impact of Socio-Cultural Risk Factors Associated with Early Marriage in Northern Part of Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the impact of socio-cultural risk factors associated with early marriage in Nigeria. Four research questions generated from four research objectives were used for the study. Three null hypotheses were tested. Survey research design was used for the study. The target population of the study was 9783 members of married young girls, male and female health workers, and male and female Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) workers. A sample size of 1059 respondents was created consisting of 347 early married girls, 379 NGO workers (women and men), and 333 health workers (women and men) drawn from Yobe, Adamawa, and Taraba respectively. A multistage sampling technique was adopted in the study. The convenience sampling method was used to select the sample size used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “The Impact of Socio-cultural risk factors Associated with Early Marriage in the Northern Part of Nigeria. “The face and content validity of the instrument was determined by the researcher and two other experts in the studied area. The reliability of the validated instrument was determined through a pilot study, while the Cronbach Alpha Statistic Method was used to establish the reliability coefficient (r) values of 0.87, 0.812, 0.881, 0.778, 0.786, and 0.908. Responses to the research questions were analyzed using mean and standard deviation statistics, and the null hypothesis was tested using ANOVA at a significance level of 0.05. The result of the research confirmed to a high extent gender inequalities, poverty, economic and cultural norms and practices are all sociocultural risk factors associated

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