The impact of early marriage on the life satisfaction, education and subjective health of young women in India: A longitudinal analysis

Kanji, Shireen, Carmichael, Fiona, Darko, Christian K., Egyei, Richmond and Vasilakos, Nicholas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3279-2885 (2024) The impact of early marriage on the life satisfaction, education and subjective health of young women in India: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Development Studies, 60 (5). pp. 705-723. ISSN 0022-0388

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Abstract

Despite progress in reducing rates of early marriage, it is still a widespread practice in India accounting for 30 per cent of the world’s early marriages. Understanding its impacts is thus of high importance to global gender equality goals. This article examines the impact of early marriage on multi-dimensional aspects of well-being: life satisfaction, subjectively assessed health and educational attainment. Difference-in-differences analysis with propensity score matching examines causal effects using Young Lives Study data. The analysis shows women who married early experience a trajectory of lower life satisfaction which is in evidence before marriage, even at age 12, persisting until the latest survey at age 22. There is no evidence of a causal negative effect of early marriage on life satisfaction; the relationship is more complicated, linked to trajectories of deprivation which commence from a very young age. In contrast, early marriage negatively affects women’s self-reported health and educational attainment by age 22.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available in Young Lives: https://beta.ukdataservice.ac.uk/datacatalogue/studies/study?id=7823&type=Data%20catalogue.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	early marriage,education,gender inequality,india,life satisfaction,subjective health,women’s well-being,development,sdg 5 - gender equality ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3303
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Responsible Business Regulation Group
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	08 Nov 2023 03:35
Last Modified:	03 Apr 2024 14:31
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/93599
DOI:	10.1080/00220388.2023.2284678

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