Child Marriage

What norms contribute to this practice?

Social norms are the perceived, informal rules that define acceptable, appropriate, and obligatory actions within a given group or community. Some social norms are specific to a particular context, while others may be broad enough to span multiple contexts; even seemingly contradictory norms may exist in the same context.¹

The following examples represent social norms relevant to child marriage for adolescents (under 18 years old) that emerged from across the literature. They are not meant to be a comprehensive list of all relevant social norms or norms relevant in all contexts.  

• Premarital sex, relationships, and even sexual harassment will damage a daughter’s reputation^2–12 and the family honor.^{7–10,12–16} Early marriage is seen as a socially acceptable way to fulfill sexual desires among youth.^5,7,9,12,17
  Meta-Norms: Gender Ideology; Social Status

• Premarital pregnancy, including through rape, brings shame to the family.^{3,6,7,10,12,18–20} Girls can be pushed to marry their partner,^{9,10,12,15,21} or parents convinced to accept their child’s desire to marry to avoid stigma.^7,12,19
  Meta-Norms: Gender Ideology; Social Status

• In settings where marriage, including early marriage, is the norm for girls, having older unmarried girls may stigmatize families^{6,8,9,13,16,18}. Proposals are accepted early to avoid this,^{8,12,14,16,22} particularly if the husband is considered desirable^14,16,22 or when there are few eligible men.¹³
  Meta-Norms: Gender Ideology; Social Status

• Norms that hinder the autonomy and decision-making of girls in marriage and other decision-making processes limit their agency to advocate for their own interests around marriage.^{10,12,16,22,23}
  Meta-Norms: Authority; Control and Violence; Gender Ideology; Social Status

• Norms around fears of girls being involved in sexual relationships or experiencing harassment at school may lead to parents not sending them to school.^8,16,24 Marriage is then seen as the best option for out-of-school girls.^{8,13,16,18,21,22,24,25}
  Meta-Norms: Gender Ideology; Protection; Social Status

• Norms endorsing large families increase preference for younger brides, who are seen as more fertile or having more child-bearing years.^6,8,9,16,26 Girls are believed to be ready for marriage at menarche or when they are biologically capable of conceiving.^{5–7,9,11,20}
  Meta-Norms: Gender Ideology; Social Status

• Children should be obedient to authority figures such as their parents;^5,7,17 including married girls who are expected to obey their husbands.^5,11,16 Marriages arranged by parents are a means to control their children, to prevent unacceptable or disrespectful behavior such as allowing children to elope or make independent decisions.^5,7,10 In marriage, men prefer younger girls who are seen as more malleable and easy to control;^3,8 older (unmarried) girls are harder to control.^6,13
  Meta-Norms: Authority; Control and Violence; Gender Ideology; Social Status

• Marriage is a means to gaining respect in communities. For girls, it is a way to fulfill the key roles of womanhood, as a wife and mother^{5,6,12,13,16,18}; it may be seen as necessary for protection and provision.^{3,6,8,12,13,16,18,21,24} For men and boys, becoming the head of a household and bearing financial responsibility carries respect in their community.^5,7,18
  Meta-Norms: Authority; Control and Violence; Gender Ideology; Social Status

• For boys and girls, educational aspirations can be an acceptable reason to delay marriage.^{5–7,12,18,27} Boys’ readiness for marriage is determined by their ability to support a family, which may (or may not) be improved after completing their education.^5,18 Girls’ education can be valued in itself, to contribute to social and economic prosperity for the household and community, as a means to increase her value as a bride, or in instances of excellent academic ability.^{11,12,16,20,27}
  Meta-Norms: Control and Violence; Gender Ideology; Protection; Social Status

What other factors affect this practice?

Child marriage is closely linked with social, religious, and economic expectations from caregivers and communities and the role and influence of reference groups. The practice of child marriage can be influenced by other factors including poverty and families’ socio-economic status, the practice of dowries or bride price in communities, and disaster and displacement. Additional examples are below:

Individual

• Socio-economic status^1–12
• Employment^8,11
• Gender^9–15
• Religion^12,14,16,17
• Ethnicity^12,17

Community/Environmental

• School Enrollment and Attendance^{3,8,12,14,18,19}
• Dowries and bride price^2,10–12,20
• Post-disaster settings, including climate-related shocks and displacement^2,4,11,17
• Geographic Setting (Urban and Rural)^10–12

Who influences this practice?

Reference groups, particularly parents, as well as extended families and communities have an important influence on whether girls and boys marry before they turn 18. These reference groups sometimes hold individual attitudes or beliefs that do not support child marriage, although their actions uphold norms of child marriage.

• Parents and family^1–14
• Community and religious leaders^1,7,9,14,15
• Community^{1,7,8,11,14,16,17}
• Peers^6,7,11,14

Selected interventions addressing norms and behaviors

• The Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Program (AGEP) was designed and implemented by the Population Council, YWCA, Making Cents International, the National Savings and Credit Bank of Zambia (Natsave) and the Zambian Ministry of Health in four provinces of Zambia. This program aimed to build girls’ economic and social assets, with the theory that this would lead to healthy change across a set of outcomes including early marriage, adolescent pregnancy, sexual risk-taking, and transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. The intervention consisted of three components; weekly discussions, health service vouchers, and bank accounts. Weekly ‘safe space’ meetings for girls, separated by the girls’ age and marital status, were facilitated by a trained mentor from their community and provided a safe space to discuss sexual and reproductive health, HIV, and life and financial skills. A multi-arm randomized cluster design evaluation study evaluated the impact of the program 2 years after the completion of the program. Researchers found a positive effect on sexual and reproductive health knowledge, financial literacy, saving behavior, self-efficacy and transactional sex, but no effect on delaying marriage or on gender norms or attitudes. Limitations of the program’s impact included low attendance from participants and broader interpersonal and community obstacles, such as a family’s low socio-economic status and norms around gender and violence.^1,2
• The Samata intervention was implemented as part of the STRIVE consortium at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Karnataka state, India from 2014-2017. This multi-level intervention was designed to address barriers that prevent girls from staying in school and delaying marriage. Barriers include family poverty and gender norms that devalue girls’ education leading to removing daughters from school early, arranging earlier marriages and/or voluntarily dedicating them as sex workers as part of a cultural religious tradition in this setting. Intervention components included establishing safe spaces for girls to meet, academic tutoring for girls, forming boys’ groups to discuss girls’ rights, engaging parents to value education and rethink norms around early marriage, and linking intervention families to government incentives for girls schooling. The intervention also worked with schools to sensitize them to the value of girls’ education and safety and strengthen governance and student tracking systems. The program was evaluated through a randomized control trial which found no difference between rates of school dropout and early marriage for girls in the control and intervention groups. However, a nested qualitative study done midway through the evaluation found parents reported high educational aspirations for their daughters. Concurrent government programs to improve educational outcomes and decrease child marriage in both control and intervention sites limited ability to assess program impact.^3–6