In recent decades, adolescent motherhood lias emerged
as an issue of increasing concern through out the developing and
the developed world. There is a growing awareness that early
childbearing is a health risk for both the mother and the child Also,
it usually terminates a girl's educational career, threatening her
future economic prospects, earning capacity, and overall well-
being. Thus, adolescent motherhood has significant ramifications at
the personal, societal and global levels. The aim of this paper is to
investigate the scenario of earl) marriage and adolescent
motherhood in rural Rajshahi of Bangladesh. Using the data from
l96 currently married adolescent girls aged between 15 and l9
years it was found that 50% of them gave first birth before l 9 years
of age. Mean age at marriage and mean age at _first birth of these
currently married adolescent was found to be 15.18 and 16. I6 years
respectively. Using the most reliable statistical technique
simultaneous linear probability model was fitted and found that
education was the single most significant factor that affected both
early marriage and earlier first birth after getting marriage. In
addition, the result of the study show that increased education level
increased the age at first marriage and delayed adolescent
motherhood.
