Original articleChild Marriage and Its Associations With Controlling Behaviors and Spousal Violence Against Adolescent and Young Women in Pakistan
Section snippets
Sample of participants
We selected participants from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) carried out by the National Institute of Population Studies, Islamabad, Pakistan and ICF International, Calverton, Maryland between October 2012 and March 2013 [7]. PDHS is the third national survey conducted in Pakistan under the umbrella of the global program of Demographic and Health Surveys. Depending on the preference of household members, trained interviewers verbally administered the survey. A nationally
Results
The median age of participants in the sample was 22 years (minimum = 15 years; maximum = 24 years). The median age of participants' husbands was 27 years (minimum = 16 years; maximum = 60 years). Around 30% of the participants reported that they had been married for a total of 5–9 years. The most participants (47.8%) were married before the age of 18 years. Around 3% and 13% of participants were married before the age of 14 and 16 years, respectively. Of those married before the age of
Discussion
Almost one third of women aged 15–24 years in Pakistan reported experiencing CB by their husbands. This is in line with previous international literature, which has shown that women, especially in Asian [23], African [22], and Middle-Eastern regions [24], experience CB by their husbands. Our study adds to the literature by showing that, among women who experienced CB, those married as children experienced significantly more CB from their husbands compared with those married as adults.
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Conflicts of Interest: None.