Abstract:
Child marriage represents one of the greatest dehumanizing experiences and practices such as female genital mutilation that portend grave danger for the development of the Nigerian child. This research work adopted the cognitive dissonance and health belief theories for understanding how the public reacts to media campaigns against child/early marriage. Using the survey research method, questionnaires were administered on 385 respondents to find answers to the five research questions guiding the enquiry. Multi stage sampling technique - including the purposive selection of three states in northeast Nigeria, clustering them into senatorial districts and random sampling of local government areas– was used to select the respondents. Key findings from the study suggest that respondents are exposed to media campaigns in the region. However, the level of exposure is not relatively high. It was also found out that the level of knowledge of the people of North West Nigeria about child marriage is poor, accounting for their poor perception and compliance with the campaign warnings. Based on the findings, the study recommends among others the use of different media to reach the people in their culture, devise means to encourage girl child education and involve religious and community leaders in redefining the age of maturity for marriage.
