AbstractChild marriage, specifically the marriage of underage girls, is a crucial social problem that cuts across religions and cultures and can be considered as violence against children and women. Currently, the media is one of the strongest public spheres to combat this problem apart from national and international laws and agreements. This study aims to analyse how the child marriage problem is represented in the Turkish print media within the framework of feminist theory. The analysis is based on 246 news reports related to child marriages. The study found that even though the issue has been identified as a problem in the Turkish print media, it has not come to the forefront. Rather, the newspapers have normalized the issue of underage marriage, especially through the use of language.
The discourse of child marriage in relation to the lives of the girls in Indonesia specifically and the Global South generally is often limited to describing their vulnerability and position as victims. Practices of child marriage are inseparable from its exploitative and harmful nature. This paper, however, shows that the discourse of child marriage produced in humanitarian projects and interventions often avoids the complexity and diversity of the practices and the lives of the girls and reduces the problem into monolithic narrative of their communities’ traditions, backwardness, and inherent gender inequality. This paper asks: How has the discourse of child marriage in relation to Indonesian girls developed historically? How have international NGOs depicted the issue of child marriage? We show that child marriage discourse is historically rooted in colonial ideas surrounding modernity, childhood, and marriage, and that documents published by international NGOs tend to flatten the complex experiences and lives of Indonesian girls.
Early marriage encourages various problems for young women. The problems would be affecting their psychological conditions including depression. This study aimed to describe the depression in adolescent girls with early marriage in Babakan Ciparay District, Bandung City. This study was conducted using the descriptive explorative method, with a cross-sectional approach. Samples were selected using the total sampling technique, in which 76 young women aged 16-19 years involved in this study. This study used an instrument from the Indonesian version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) questionnaire with validity values at 0.361-0.773 and the value of Cronbach's alpha is 0.898, and several additional questions related to the problems experienced by girls who married early. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis techniques for quantitative data and content analysis for interview data. This study was held in the range of April - May 2019. The results showed that 68.4% of respondents were at a minimum level of depression or did not experience depression, 11.8% had mild depression, 10.5% had moderate depression and 9.2% had severe depression. It can be concluded that the young women did not experience depression, because most respondents married with own desires, lived separately from their parents-in-law and did not experience domestic violence. However, there were still some respondents who are depressed or have the potential to experience depression due to economic problem, problems with in-laws, problems with their husbands and problems related to family relationships. Therefore, there is a need for education about stress management and counseling program to improve the mental health of girls who married early.Keywords: adolescent girl, depression, early marriage
Lia Yuliana Rachman, Efri Widianti, Anita Setyawati
Abstract Background Egypt has made progress in delaying age at marriage, but child marriage continues to be practiced in many places across the country. This study investigates the impacts of child marriage on the health and wellbeing of girls residing in urban Egypt using a multi-method approach. Methods The quantitative component leveraged data from the 2014 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey and focused on (1) reproductive health, (2) maternal health and (3) social outcomes among a subsample of ever-married urban women ages 20–24 (N = 1041). Simple and multivariable logistic regressions were used to estimate prevalence odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for associations between child marriage and the three sets of outcomes. The qualitative component drew from 11 focus groups, 23 in-depth interviews, and 13 key informant interviews conducted in three urban sites in Egypt. The data was thematically analyzed using a combination of inductive and deductive coding. Results The prevalence of marriage under age 18 was 13.22%. Child marriage was significantly associated with ever use of contraception (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 2.95 95% CI 1.67–5.19), multiple births (AOR 12.93 95% CI 5.45–30.72), rapid repeat childbirth (AOR 2.20 95% CI 1.34–3.63), and pregnancy termination (AOR 1.89 95% CI 1.11–3.23). Many of these associations disappeared after adjusting for marriage duration. Girls married under age 18 had larger spousal age gaps (AOR 2.06; 95% CI 1.24–3.41) and higher odds of FGM (AOR 2.14; 95% CI 1.11–4.13). They were significantly more likely to report receiving no ANC care (AOR 0.39; 95% CI 0.19–0.80), and less likely to deliver through C-section (AOR: 0.53; 95% CI 0.34–0.83). Consequences emerging from the qualitative data centered around five themes: (1) Access to and use of sexual and reproductive health services; (2) exposure to FGM; (3) marriage and birth registration; (4) marital relations; and (5) relationship with in-laws. Conclusion Findings provide important insights into the practice of child marriage in urban areas in Egypt and illustrate a range of adverse consequences associated with the practice.
Shatha Elnakib, May Elsallab, Maha Abdel Wanis et al.
Introduction: Child marriage is a concerning issue associated with various health and social problems, including stress, suicide, despair, low self-esteem, family and social difficulties, limited job choices, financial dependence, and school dropout. Objectives: This study determined the relationship between marriage readiness cards and the improvement of adolescent knowledge in unraveling child marriages. Methods: The research utilized a cross-sectional design conducted at the adolescent health post within the Pantoloan Community Health Center's working area in July 2023. Purposive sampling involved 36 respondents, and data collection utilized a 10-question questionnaire. Univariate and bivariate analyses (Wilcoxon) were applied to the collected data, presented through tables and narrative descriptions. Results: The research findings indicated a significant improvement in adolescent knowledge after the intervention, as evidenced by a negative rank of 0 and a positive rank of 5, with a statistically significant p-value of 0.000. In conclusion, engaging educational media, such as marriage readiness cards, proved effective in enhancing respondents' knowledge. This study recommends community health centers to adopt educational media that capture adolescents' attention for more impactful health promotion initiatives.
Putri Mulia Sakti, Kadar Ramadhan, T. Iskandar Faisal
Child marriage—defined as a formal or informal union before the age of 18—has been a widespread practice in Mexico, particularly in rural and Indigenous regions. Historically, Mexican law permitted girls to marry at 14 and boys at 16, provided they had parental or judicial consent. This legal framework raised major concerns regarding the rights, health, education, and economic prospects of girls and adolescents. In response, the country enacted a reform to the Federal Civil Code in 2014, setting the minimum legal age for marriage at 18 with no exceptions. This study evaluates the impact of the child marriage ban in Mexico on three key outcomes. First, it analyzes the incidence of births to adolescent mothers. Second, it evaluates the effect on gender-based violence, using hospital discharges due to domestic violence as an indicator. Finally, it considers women’s empowerment, measured by labor income as reported in household surveys. <div> <br> </div> <div> The empirical strategy relies on a difference-in-differences design, leveraging both the temporal variation in the reform's implementation and the historical heterogeneity in child marriage prevalence at the municipal level. The analysis compares cohorts of women exposed and not exposed to the reform within each municipality, controlling for fixed effects at the municipal, cohort and year levels. This methodology allows estimation of how the reform’s impact varies according to the pre-existing intensity of child marriage in each municipality. The findings indicate that the reform is associated with a greater reduction in adolescent births in municipalities with high prior prevalence of child marriage. In addition, there is evidence of increased labor income among women in those areas, as well as an increase in reported cases of domestic violence. This latter result may reflect greater detection, increased willingness to report, or improved institutional responsiveness following the reform. Overall, these results suggest that the public policy not only restricted access to child marriage, but also contributed to improving the well-being of young women. </div>
In a plain‐language news analysis published at the end of March, data from the federal Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) shows that teen girls are faring worse on mental health measures than boys. Misty Richards, M.D., M.S., program director for UCLA's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship, recently cared for a girl who attempted suicide after receiving a college rejection letter, Richards said in an interview with JAMA.
Abstract Following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, they systematically banned Afghan girls from formal education beyond the sixth grade across the country, forcibly depriving millions of girls of educational opportunities in Afghanistan. This qualitative study explores the consequences of school bans on the psychological well-being and self-esteem of Afghan adolescent girls by examining how prolonged adversity following abrupt school bans, conceptualised as a potentially traumatic life experience, has affected Afghan adolescent girls’ daily routines, educational goals, and aspirations. The study employs semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. The participants comprise 10 Afghan girls aged between 13 and 18 residing in Kabul. Data collection was conducted online from 17 August to 4 September, approximately three years after the imposition of school bans. Most participants had been experiencing school exclusion for three years. The findings indicate significant shifts in participants’ daily routines and psychological well-being, particularly among those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Participants who experienced abrupt school exclusion reported lower psychological well-being, including increased social isolation, compared to those with prior awareness. In addition to the loss of agency experienced by the participants, the data analysis reveals stress-related somatic symptoms, including headaches, among a small number of participants. These findings emphasise the pressing need for psychological support and educational opportunities to mitigate the effects of prolonged adversity.
Abstract Background Child marriage and partner controlling behaviours are culturally seated phenomena in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Child marriage refers to any legal or customary union involving a boy or girl below the age of 18. Partner controlling behaviour on the other hand refers to a situation where a sexual partner consistently tries to control their spouse’s behaviours, movements, and social contacts with other people. This study examined the association between child marriage and partner controlling behaviour among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in SSA. Methods We extracted data from the most recent Demographic and Health Surveys of 26 countries in SSA. Countries whose surveys were conducted from 2010 to 2020 were included in the study. A total of 26,970 AGYW (15–24 years) were included in the study. We used a multilevel mixed-effect binary logistic regression analysis to examine the association between child marriage and partner controlling behaviour. Results The average prevalence of child marriage was 55.40% (95% CI: 48.83–61.97). This proportion ranged from 19.62% (95% CI: 16.71–22.53) in South Africa to 85.10% (95% CI: 83.14–87.06) in Chad. The proportion of AGYW who had experienced partner controlling behaviour was 68.36% (95% CI: 64.40–72.33), and this ranged from 38.40% (95% CI: 35.55–41.25) in Burundi to 88.18% (95% CI: 83.80–92.56) in Gabon. AGYW who married as child brides were more likely [aOR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.21, 1.43] to experience partner controlling behaviour compared to those who did not marry as child brides. AGYW in Western [aOR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.33, 1.71] and Eastern [aOR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.13, 1.50] part of SSA were more likely to experience partner controlling behaviour compared to those in Central Africa. Conclusions Our study has shown that there is a significant association between child marriage and the likelihood of experiencing partner controlling behaviour in SSA. Effective policies and interventions are, therefore, needed to prevent child marriage and raise AGYW’s awareness of its implication on victims of partner controlling behaviours.
Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, Richard Gyan Aboagye, Joshua Okyere et al.
Child marriage is a violation of Human Rights and an impediment to social and economic development, it is strongly rooted in gender inequality. In Brazil, this practice has a predominantly informal and consensual quality, they often involve adult men married to girls in early puberty. The objective of this study is to synthesize the literature on the impact of child marriage on the most diverse indicators of human development - such as education, labor market, health, fertility, violence and female empowerment. In summary, the literature reveals that child marriage has a negative impact on these indicators, and this corroborates the urge to eliminate this phenomenon, which will ensure women’s right to a full economic and social life.
