Zambian law prohibits early marriage but the practice, driven by circumstance, stubbornly persists, albeit increasingly as informal cohabitations which are inseparable from pregnancy and parenthood. For many adolescents, who lack the emotional maturity and financial resources to cope, they are a complex and challenging experience, rarely investigated until now.
New research from Child Frontiers documents the experiences of young Zambians who married or became parents in their teens and exposes the challenges they face as they navigate these adult roles and responsibilities.
The researchers identify what support the young people need to improve theirs and their children’s lives, signalling policies that would bolster efforts towards the SDG goal to end child marriage by 2030 and ultimately help to break the cycle of poverty and gender inequality in Zambia.
The researchers interviewed 84 young people aged 14 to 24 years old who live in impoverished conditions in 3 communities in the Kululushi, Mazabuka and Katete districts of Zambia. The research was undertaken as part of a multi country study (YMAPS) conducted in partnership with Young Lives, into early marriage and parenthood in Ethiopia, India and Peru.
Researchers found that most teens interviewed had not wanted to get married, but had done so because of poverty, family pressure or an unintended pregnancy and that pregnancy, marriage and parenthood was nearly always inseparable in young peoples’ lives.
In spite of being severely frowned upon by older generations, adolescents said they engaged in sexual activity at a young age. Boys want to satisfy their curiosity, desire or deal with peer pressure. But for girls as young as 12, and under pressure to reduce their burden on the household, it is a survival strategy; transactional sex becomes a way to secure basic material and financial needs. With little access to or knowledge of contraception, pregnancies often follow. Many young girls move in with the boy who made them pregnant and so co-habitation begins.
In whatever way they came about, young people rarely described these marriages in positive terms. They recount facing numerous problems from financial hardship and the loss of education to infidelity, and domestic violence. Feeling trapped and unhappy, the vast majority said they married too young, and felt that in marrying they had left one set of problems to arrive at another.
Most young husbands felt that marriage had imposed on them a series of responsibilities they were unable to meet. In becoming a husband and father they it had meant giving up on their dreams to complete secondary school, find a secure job, and marry someone they know and care about in stark contrast to their lived reality.
Girls and young women, with very little decision-making power in relationships, and often experiencing sexual and physical violence, generally only found happiness in marriage when their material and financial circumstances had improved. Single mothers appeared to have more autonomy than their married and divorced peers.
Researchers found children trying to manage adult problems without the the maturity or life experience to do so. With scant access to services, parents or other family members often step in to support young couples’ basic needs but despite this, separation and divorce are extremely common. 4 main reasons are given for relationships breaking down: inability of husband to meet the economic and material needs of the household; unfaithfulness in marriage and lack of trust; physical violence and abandonment of wife by husband.
Life was invariably harder for divorced or separated young girls who sometimes fell back on transactional sex to meet their basic needs and so start the cycle all over again.
In the midst of these challenges, the vast majority described the joy they experienced from being with their young child(ren) and expressed a commitment to building a better future for them. Whilst their own aspirations had in most cases not been realised, most still dreamt of a return to school and to improve the general economic well being of their families.
Further Information
Young Marriage, Parenthood and Divorce in Zambia by Oliver Mweemba and Gillian Mann is published by Young Lives www.younglives.org.uk
For more information, or to speak with the researchers, contact Julia Tilford, Young Lives Communications Manager on or email julia.tilford@qeh.ox.ac.uk
For more information about YMAPS visit www.younglives.org.uk
Zambian law prohibits early marriage but the practice, driven by circumstance, stubbornly persists, albeit increasingly as informal cohabitations which are inseparable from pregnancy and parenthood. For many adolescents, who lack the emotional maturity and financial resources to cope, they are a complex and challenging experience, rarely investigated until now.
New research from Child Frontiers documents the experiences of young Zambians who married or became parents in their teens and exposes the challenges they face as they navigate these adult roles and responsibilities.
The researchers identify what support the young people need to improve theirs and their children’s lives, signalling policies that would bolster efforts towards the SDG goal to end child marriage by 2030 and ultimately help to break the cycle of poverty and gender inequality in Zambia.
The researchers interviewed 84 young people aged 14 to 24 years old who live in impoverished conditions in 3 communities in the Kululushi, Mazabuka and Katete districts of Zambia. The research was undertaken as part of a multi country study (YMAPS) conducted in partnership with Young Lives, into early marriage and parenthood in Ethiopia, India and Peru.
Researchers found that most teens interviewed had not wanted to get married, but had done so because of poverty, family pressure or an unintended pregnancy and that pregnancy, marriage and parenthood was nearly always inseparable in young peoples’ lives.
In spite of being severely frowned upon by older generations, adolescents said they engaged in sexual activity at a young age. Boys want to satisfy their curiosity, desire or deal with peer pressure. But for girls as young as 12, and under pressure to reduce their burden on the household, it is a survival strategy; transactional sex becomes a way to secure basic material and financial needs. With little access to or knowledge of contraception, pregnancies often follow. Many young girls move in with the boy who made them pregnant and so co-habitation begins.
In whatever way they came about, young people rarely described these marriages in positive terms. They recount facing numerous problems from financial hardship and the loss of education to infidelity, and domestic violence. Feeling trapped and unhappy, the vast majority said they married too young, and felt that in marrying they had left one set of problems to arrive at another.
Most young husbands felt that marriage had imposed on them a series of responsibilities they were unable to meet. In becoming a husband and father they it had meant giving up on their dreams to complete secondary school, find a secure job, and marry someone they know and care about in stark contrast to their lived reality.
Girls and young women, with very little decision-making power in relationships, and often experiencing sexual and physical violence, generally only found happiness in marriage when their material and financial circumstances had improved. Single mothers appeared to have more autonomy than their married and divorced peers.
Researchers found children trying to manage adult problems without the the maturity or life experience to do so. With scant access to services, parents or other family members often step in to support young couples’ basic needs but despite this, separation and divorce are extremely common. 4 main reasons are given for relationships breaking down: inability of husband to meet the economic and material needs of the household; unfaithfulness in marriage and lack of trust; physical violence and abandonment of wife by husband.
Life was invariably harder for divorced or separated young girls who sometimes fell back on transactional sex to meet their basic needs and so start the cycle all over again.
In the midst of these challenges, the vast majority described the joy they experienced from being with their young child(ren) and expressed a commitment to building a better future for them. Whilst their own aspirations had in most cases not been realised, most still dreamt of a return to school and to improve the general economic well being of their families.
Further Information
Young Marriage, Parenthood and Divorce in Zambia by Oliver Mweemba and Gillian Mann is published by Young Lives www.younglives.org.uk
For more information, or to speak with the researchers, contact Julia Tilford, Young Lives Communications Manager on or email julia.tilford@qeh.ox.ac.uk
For more information about YMAPS visit www.younglives.org.uk