| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to examine the determinants of age at first marriage of a woman in Uganda. The study used data from Uganda Demographic and Health survey which was conducted by Uganda Bureau of Statistics in conjunction with Macro International from June 15 through December 18 2016. A total of 3477 women were successfully interviewed and these constituted our sample size. These women were asked questions on; age, education, children ever born, age at first marriage, number of unions, age at first sexual intercourse, woman’s occupation and sources of earnings. In addition, information on socio-economic variables and age at first marriage were collected from all women. Furthermore, this survey used a representative sample.
STATA version 15 software package was used to carry out carry out univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analysis. Study findings using Multivariate Linear regression analysis indicated that there was a significant statistical positive association between current age of a woman, type of residency (rural), education level(higher), children ever born, age at first sex with age at first marriage of a woman and a statistical significant negative relationship between wealth index (fourth and highest) and age at first marriage as the p-value was less than 0.05 which makes the stated null hypotheses for these factors false. Therefore, it authenticates that age at first marriage of a woman is affected by the above factors.
Based on the findings we recommend that it is crucial to continue improving girls and young women access to education in the country, as this is an important avenue for raising the women’s age at first marriage and for empowering women and enhancing their participation in market economy. The Government and non-Government organizations are recommended to implement awareness on the negative effects of early sexual activities in order to reduce on the teenage sexual activities that could reduce the risk of early marriage. | en_US |
