Child Marriage and Maternal Mortality in Latin America

Carlos Ramirez Hernandez, Université de Montréal
Simona Bignami, Université de Montréal
Sabrina Juran, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

In Latin America, the practice of child marriage has remained unabated for the past four decades, and efforts to reduce it have shown little progress. At the same time, countries with a higher prevalence of child marriage are also more likely to experience higher rates of maternal mortality. The literature about the causes and consequences of this harmful practice for the health of adolescents and youth in the region, especially women, is limited due to the lack of appropriate data. To fill this gap, we analyze microdata on births and deaths from vital statistics in six Latin American countries. The contribution of the study is twofold. First, we estimate the prevalence of child marriage by women’s socio-economic and geographic characteristics. Second, we measure the association of child marriage and maternal mortality net of women’s background characteristics. The results of this study are essential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating child marriage by 2030.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Mortality and Longevity, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics

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