Peer-reviewed article
Adolescent‐led marriage in Somaliland and Puntland: A surprising interaction of agency and social norms
Leah Kenny, Hamse Koshin, Munshi Sulaiman, Beniamino Cislaghi ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined why adolescent girls in Somaliland and Puntland enter into marriage, focusing on how girls' agency and social norms interact. Researchers interviewed 156 men and women through individual interviews and focus group discussions. The findings show that increased access to technology gave adolescent girls more freedom from parental control, but they used this freedom to pursue early marriage within existing social norms that reward it. The study suggests that interventions need to address social norms, not just girls' autonomy, to be effective.
Key points
- Technology and economic deprivation were important contextual factors in explaining child marriage prevalence
- Adolescent girls' increased agency contributed to, rather than decreased, child marriage
- Access to technology expanded adolescents' freedom from parents' control
- Adolescents used increased freedom within existing social norms that rewarded early marriage
- Interventions must integrate a social norms perspective to avoid unintentionally increasing adolescent-led marriage
Limitations
The study is qualitative and descriptive, based on self-reported accounts from 156 participants; it cannot establish causation or quantify the scale of the problem, and the findings may not generalise beyond Somaliland and Puntland.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Child marriage, formal and informal unions when one or both spouses are under 18, disproportionately affects adolescent girls over boys. It has serious consequences for girls' health, wellbeing, and development. Little is known about the ways in which girls' agency and contextual social norms - unwritten rules of (un)acceptable behaviour in a group - intersect to affect child marriage practices. This paper investigates norms and agency as facilitators and obstacles to adolescent girls' marriage in Somaliland and Puntland. METHODS: Participants (n = 156) were men and women living in Somaliland and Puntland. We conducted 36 qualitative semi-structured individual interviews (12 men and 24 women). We also held 15 focus group discussions (8 in Somaliland and 7 in Puntland) with 6-10 people each (n = 120). Mixed focus groups were conducted with men and women together, and were segregated by age. RESULTS: Technology and economic deprivation were important contextual factors in explaining the prevalence of child marriage. Participants reported that adolescent girls' and boys' increased agency contributed to, rather than decreased, child marriage. Access to technology expanded adolescents' freedom from their parents' control. Adolescents used that freedom within the existing system of social norms that rewarded early (as opposed to later) marriage. CONCLUSIONS: Effective interventions that aim to reduce marriage among adolescents living in Somalia (where marriage can be a protective strategy) should integrate a social norms perspective to avoid increasing adolescent-led marriage.