Peer-reviewed article
Adolescent boys’ and girls’ perspectives on social norms surrounding child marriage in Nepal
Grace Morrow, Kathryn M. Yount, Irina Bergenfeld, Anne Laterra, Sadhvi Kalra et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined what adolescent boys and girls in Nepal think about social norms surrounding child marriage. Researchers surveyed over 2,200 young people and conducted interviews and focus groups with 12-16 year olds. The findings show that gender roles and family responsibilities heavily influence attitudes toward marriage, with both boys and girls agreeing that parents make marriage decisions but disagreeing on issues like girls' freedom to move around and what makes a woman valuable. The study suggests that programmes should help parents and girls communicate better and support continued education.
Key points
- In Nepal, 38.2% of women aged 20-24 were married by age 18
- Both boys and girls agreed that parents are the decision-makers for marriage
- Gender roles around household chores and family responsibility underpin social norms about marriage
- Boys and girls disagreed on girls' mobility, appropriate interactions between unmarried adolescents, and how family honour should be maintained
- Recommendations include focusing on inter-relatedness of boys' and girls' wellbeing and structural support for education
Limitations
This study captures adolescent perceptions and social norms but does not evaluate an intervention or measure actual outcomes for children experiencing child marriage. The research is descriptive rather than explanatory of the mechanisms that drive marriage decisions or effectiveness of any prevention strategies.
Abstract
According to recent data, in Nepal, 38.2% of women aged 20-24 years are married by the age of 18. This analysis of CARE's Tipping Point Initiative seeks to compare Nepali adolescent boys' and girls' perceptions of empirical and normative expectations around child, early and forced marriage. A baseline survey of 1,134 adolescent girls and 1,154 adolescent boys provided 11 items for descriptive quantitative analysis. Thirty in-depth interviews and 16 focus groups were conducted with young people aged 12-16 years and analysed using modified Grounded Theory. Themes in the data produced thick descriptions of gender roles/responsibilities, employment, mobility and marriage. Comparisons by gender of normative and empirical expectations, and sanctions on child, early and forced marriage were produced. Gender roles/responsibilities underpin social norms for mobility, marriage and employment, and are connected by subthemes with a focus on responsibility for household chores, interaction between unmarried adolescents, education/financial stability, honour/reputation, and parental decision-makers). Participants agreed on gendered labour, women's employment, and parents as decision-makers. Areas of disagreement included repercussions for interactions between unmarried adolescents, girls' mobility, attributes of the ideal woman, and maintaining family honour. Programming recommendations include focusing on the inter-relatedness of boys' and girls' wellbeing, communication between girls and parents, and structural support for education Research recommendations include identifying factors underlying sexual harassment and constructs of masculinity and femininity.