Parents’ Perception of Child Marriage In Kwara Central, Nigeria

Abstract

This research investigated parents’ view of child marriage as regards economic, education, health, socio-cultural and legal concerns in Kwara Central, Nigeria. The study employed a descriptive survey design. The population consisted of all parents in Kwara Central, Nigeria. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the sample of 400 parents for the study. A twenty-item instrument tagged ‘Parents Perception of Child Marriage Questionnaire was used to generate data for the research. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. The results showed that parents perceived that child marriage have a negative influence on a child’s economic power, education and health and should not be encouraged. Also, parents perceived that religion and culture should not permit child marriage, and that laws against child marriage should be upheld while the perpetrators of child marriage be punished severely. The findings of this study have implications for counsellors to intensify their efforts in creating more community awareness and organizing more enlightenment programmes on child marriage. Additionally, if parents do not distance themselves from this detrimental habit, their opinions on child marriage might not matter. Therefore, the counsellors shouldn't base their advice solely on the parents' belief that child marriage has a negative impact on the child; instead, they should work to encourage its cessation in society by monitoring compliance with policies against it, developing and implementing child protection measures that strengthen systems and mechanisms to address girls' protection needs at the family, school, and community levels, and encouraging other people to do the same.