3. Results 3.1 Demographics The study’s respondents were all female and included both those who were married 18 years and over, and those married below 18 years of age. The participants were drawn from Gwaze, Mwedzi, Yafele, Murape, Chibamu and Musonza villages in Goromonzi. The average age for the five respondents who were “Under 18” when married was 35.2 with a standard deviation of 14.5 years. The range of ages when they married was from 15 to 17 years, so none were children per se and all were adolescents. The average age for respondents in the “Over 18”group age was 35.9 at the time of their marriage, and with a standard deviation of 11.9, with a range in age at time of marriage from 18 to 28 years. Table 5: Demographic data, Over and under 18 years at marriage Residence: Rural Urban Peri-urban Employment: Informal employment Unemployed Housewife Farming Over 18 [n=19] Under 18 [n=5] 13[65%] 3[15%] 4[20%] 3[43%]* 3[43%] 1[14%]* 3[20%] 9[60%] 0 3[20%] 1[20%] 3[60%] 1[20%] 0 Among the “Under 18” category 40% of the respondents did “Not finish school” while 20% completed “Primary school” and another 20% completed “Secondary school”. Of note should be the high of 68% among the “Over 18” who completed secondary compared to 20% among the “Under 18”. 80% of the respondents believed that child marriages were very common in Goromonzi, and 47% of respondents knew of somebody who was involved in a child marriage. 3.2 Circumstances leading to Child Marriage 3.2.1 Poverty and unemployment Respondents explained that being redundant and spending the whole day sitting at home without anything to do forced them to get married. According to respondents, being redundant was arguably the biggest causative factor for child marriage. Explaining the role of poverty in their decision to get married before the legal age, three respondents said: “I married too early because of poverty with the hope that I would get a better life. So for me poverty was the reason I got married.” 11