Working Paper Abstract

Early Marriage and HIV Risks in Sub-Saharan Africa
Shelley Clark
 

Abstract:
This paper examines the effects of girl’s early marriage on the risks of acquiring HIV/AIDS. It explores the counterintuitive finding that married adolescent girls in urban centers in Kenya and Zambia have higher rates of HIV than sexually active unmarried girls, by comparing several underlying HIV risk factors. In both countries, we find that early marriage increases coital frequency, decreases condom use, and virtually eliminates girls’ ability to abstain from sex. Moreover, husbands of married girls are more likely to be HIV-positive than boyfriends of single girls. While married girls are less likely than single girls to have multiple partners, estimates from cumulative risk equations suggest that for STIs with low transmission rates (such as HIV) reducing the number of partners offers only minimal protection. These results challenge commonly believed assumptions about sex within marriage and raise several policy questions about meeting the needs of married adolescent girls.

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