Health and ideations of married female adolescents

This brief provides rigorous evidence-based insights to implementers and researchers of social and behavior change (SBC) programs that seek to improve knowledge, attitudes, norms, and behaviors of married female adolescents. The brief focuses on married adolescents’ uptake of services and health knowledge in Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara states in northwestern Nigeria using a subset of data from a household survey of married women ages 15–49 years. It is one of a series of briefs that present findings from a Breakthrough RESEARCH study that uniquely captures data on a wide range of psychosocial drivers of behavioral outcomes in the areas of family planning, malaria, and maternal, newborn, and child health, and nutrition (MNCH+N). The results presented in this series can inform the improvement of women and children’s health programming in Nigeria and help to achieve the objectives of the National Strategic Health Development Plan II (2018–2022), as well as support global efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.