Peer-reviewed article

Investigating Incidence, Correlates, and Consequences of Child Marriage Among Syrian Refugees Residing in the South of Lebanon: A Cross-Sectional Study

Shatha Elnakib, Ghada El Khoury, Pascale Salameh, Hala Sacre, Lina Abirafeh et al. · 17 Feb 2022

Abstract

PURPOSE: Research on child marriage has increased in volume but remains scarce in humanitarian settings. This study aimed to investigate rates, correlates, and consequences of child marriage among Syrian refugees in South Lebanon. METHODS: A sample of 1,593 female adolescents and 893 adults was selected using a multistage stratified cluster survey design. We quantified the cumulative incidence of child marriage among age cohorts of female refugees and identified risk factors associated with child marriage using survival methods. We also presented sexual and reproductive health measures among child brides. RESULTS: We found evidence that child marriage was widely practiced among adolescent girls, with Kaplan-Meier curves showing that 32.56% of girls aged 10-19 transitioned to marriage by age 17. Although high, this was lower than rates among women aged 25-29 (p < .005), indicating that child marriage was already widely practiced in prewar Syria. Our Cox models indicated that several factors, which mirror drivers of child marriage in stable settings, are associated with hazard of child marriage in this context. We additionally found important sexual and reproductive health gaps among child brides, such as low levels of knowledge of the dangers of early childbearing and closely spaced births as well as high rates of early and multiple births. CONCLUSIONS: Child marriage is a pervasive practice among Syrian refugees residing in this setting. Our results suggest that a confluence of factors at different levels of the social ecology increase refugee girls' vulnerability to child marriage. They also demonstrate the pressing need for interventions that target refugee child brides.