Disentangling Adolescent Marriage, Teen Childbearing and Unmet Need for Family Planning in Nepal

Jeffrey Edmeades, Avenir Health
Ramesh Kafle, Centre for Population and Development, Purbanchal University
Resham Khatri, USAID Learning for Development

Adolescent fertility has remained persistently high in Nepal even while overall fertility has fallen almost to replacement level and unmet need for family planning has fallen dramatically. The significant risks to the health of young mothers and their children that this can pose makes better understanding this pattern an urgent priority. This study uses data from three rounds of the Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) to examine the trends and determinants of adolescent childbearing, focusing on the role of family formation norms. Conceptually, we position adolescent fertility as an integral part of a family formation process that is shaped by norms that create expectations that young women marry at early ages and then bear children soon after. As a result, desire to prevent pregnancy may be low, even at early ages, until they have met the social expectations for having completed their familial unit. We begin by examining how trends in adolescent marriage, childbearing and contraceptive use (including met and unmet need) are related and then explore the determinants of both adolescent marriage and childbearing. Initial results suggest that adolescent childbearing in Nepal is driven primarily by family formation norms rather than by a lack of access to contraception.

Keywords: Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Fertility, Families, Unions and Households, Family Planning and Contraception

See extended abstract.