Page 175 - GHES-3-3

Global Health Economics and
Sustainability
Path model of child marriage in Africa

Figure 1. Path analysis showing the factors associated with child marriage. All path coefficients are significant at the 0.05 level

Table 4. Path model fit indices
Fit indices Statistics Acceptable threshold levels
Chi-square (χ ), df, p-value 5.80, 7, 0.56 p>0.05 (Barrett, 2007)
2
Bentler-Bonett normed fit index 0.981 ≥0.95 (Hu & Bentler, 1999)
Bentler-Bonett non-normed fit index 1.00 ≥0.95 (Hu & Bentler, 1999)
Comparative fit index 1.00 ≥0.95 (Hu & Bentler, 1999)
Bollen’s fit index 1.00 >0.90 (Bollen, 1990)
McDonald’s fit index 1.00 >0.90 (Worthington & Whittaker, 2006)
Joreskog-Sorbom’s fit index 0.967 >0.90 (Hooper, 2008)
Joreskog-Sorbom’s fit index 0.901 >0.90 (Hooper, 2008)
Root mean-square residual 0.020 <0.08 (Hu & Bentler, 1999)
RMSEA 0.000 <0.06 (Hu & Bentler, 1999)
90% Confidence interval (CI) of RMSEA 0-0.149 Lower CI closer to 0
Upper CI <0.08 (Hooper, 2008)
Abbreviation: RMSEA: Root-mean square error of approximation.

marriage. Child marriage alleviates the parent’s financial Getting married at a young age restricts the educational
responsibilities while acquiring financial profits from prospects for both genders since it is a significant factor
the husband. In Ethiopia, for instance, the bride’s family in the prevalence of child marriage. Young girls who
receives money and livestock from the groom’s family enter into marriage tend to have spouses who lack
(Irani & Roudsari, 2019; Pourtaheri et al., 2023). education, as men typically choose partners with lower
Education is the strongest predictor for child marriage. levels of education (Pourtaheri et al., 2023). After the
A negative relationship exists between literacy rates linear regression analysis, only youth female literacy rates
among youth males (ρ = −0.73, p<0.01) and youth females (β = −0.45, t = −4.21, p<0.05) were determined to be a
(ρ = −0.79, p<0.01) and the incidence of child marriage. strong predictor for child marriage. The results of the study

Volume 3 Issue 3 (2025) 167 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.7117