Perception of Residents in Selected Compounds in Amassoma towards Early Marriage in Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State

Early marriage is referred to as child marriage and defined as any marriage that a girl child below the age of 18 years is given out, before the girl is physically, physiologically, and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and childbearing. Although early marriage is frowned at in Nigeria, it has been observed that, the practice of child marriage is deeply entrenched in tradition, culture and religion. This study seeks to evaluate the perception of people toward early marriage among residents of Amassoma community, in Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa state. The study adopted a descriptive survey design, with a target population that includes both teenagers from 15 years and adults up to 60 years of age.120 participants were selected by simple random technique for the study. A researcher self constructed questionnaire was used for data collection. Data collected were presented in frequency tables and analyzed using simple percentage, results from the study shows that, majority of respondents 112 (93.3 %) don-t like early marriage. Perceived causes of early marriage were attributed to poverty 53 (44.2 %), lack of parental care 110 (91.7 %), lack of educational experience 107 (89.2 %), parent desire for grand children 66 (55 %), and poverty 106 (88.3 %). Findings from this study have shown that people don-t like child marriage even though it is still been practiced, which is strongly associated to poverty, lack of education experiences, parents encouraging their children for desire of having grand children early, and so on. The perceptions of people most have a positive molding if these practices most stop.