Young Wives: An Exploratory Study of Married Women Below Twenty and the Socio-Cultural Determinants of Their Contraceptive Behavior in Low Resource Settings in India
To design effective interventions that delay the first pregnancies of young already married Indian women, this study seeks to understand of the complex social norms and gender roles concerning fertility that people navigate and that ultimately lead to higher incidences of early marriage and conception.
Family planning is a public health priority in India, with a target fertility rate of 2.1% by 2025. Yet, more than 30 million women in India who want to avoid pregnancy are not using modern family planning methods. Additionally, family planning in India has focused more on female sterilization than delaying births, even though delaying births is more relevant for young women who are in the process of building a family. Despite the fact that the general determinants of family planning behaviors of Indian couples are broadly known, this is not adequate for governments to plan effective interventions.
This project will focus on two Indian states, Jharkhand and Assam, known for higher proportions of underage marriage and tribal populations. More than 33% of young married women (15-19) in Assam and 27% in Jharkhand became pregnant within a year of marriage (Indian National Family Health Survey 4). While interventions and policies are in place, it is important to focus simultaneously on understanding and addressing the socio-cultural norms and gender roles at work to effectively delay the first pregnancies of young already married women. Project research will generate knowledge required for designing interventions to achieve this desired behavior.
Project research focuses on women aged 15-19 years who have been married for at least a year and separate them into two groups: (1) those who have delayed the first pregnancy a year or more after marriage using modern methods (adopters); and (2) those who conceived prior to a year of marriage or conceived later but did not use any modern method (non-adopters). The intent is to identify the extent to which the family planning beliefs and behaviors of these two groups vary, despite navigating similar complex and diverse socio-cultural environments.
The main project objective is to identify predictors of family planning adoption by studying the complex cultural ecologies of health, particularly fertility-related beliefs, and gender norms, and how they interact with the family planning decisions of young couples. This study will draw complementary insights from both qualitative and quantitative methods to address data gaps, since these constructs often elude large-scale surveys. The merit of the study lies in its ability to generate context-specific evidence crucial for designing better interventions which will enable young couples to successfully navigate complex socio-cultural norms and make good family planning decisions that protect their well-being.
Collaborators
- Project PI: Sudipta Mondal, Project Concern International (PCI)
- Cristine Legare, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Science, The University of Texas at Austin
Funding
This project is funded by the Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program. PEER is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (referred to as the National Academies) . Sudipta Mondal is the PI on this grant. Cristine Legare is the U.S. partner on this project.
Field Sites
- Jharkhand, India
- Assam, India