Parent–offspring conflict unlikely to explain ‘child marriage’ in northwestern Tanzania

Schaffnit, Susan B.; Hassan, Anushé; Urassa, Mark; Lawson, David W.

doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0535-4

Cited by 29 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In contrast, research within communities where early marriage is commonplace demonstrates variability in girls' agency in the marital process, and that marriage under 18 years does not always imply arranged marriage, or coercion by parents or the husband [e.g. [10][11][12][13][14]. As such, while consent to marry at young ages may not always be best considered as 'informed consent', the portrayal of child marriages as inherently forced is questionable.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

What does the American public know about child marriage?

et al. 2020

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Global efforts to eradicate 'child marriage' (<18 years) increasingly target governments, the private sector and the general public as agents of change. However, understanding of child marriage may be subject to popular misconceptions, particularly because of ambiguity in the age threshold implied by the term 'child', and because awareness campaigns routinely emphasize extreme scenarios of very young girls forcibly married to much older men. Here, we ascertain public knowledge of child marriage via an online survey. Half of those surveyed mistakenly believed that the cutoff for child marriage is younger than the threshold of 18 years, and nearly three-quarters incorrectly believed that most child marriages occur at 15 years or below (it primarily occurs in later adolescence). Most participants also incorrectly believed that child marriage is illegal throughout the USA (it's illegal in only 4/50 states), substantially overestimated its global prevalence, and mistakenly believed that it primarily takes place among Muslim-majority world regions. Our results highlight important popular misconceptions of child marriage that may ultimately undermine global health goals and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. Organizations seeking to empower women by reducing child marriage should be cautious of these misunderstandings, and wary of the potential for their own activities to seed misinformation.

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Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

What does the American public know about child marriage?

et al. 2020

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“…Our study is also relevant to current debates about the best definitions of childhood and adolescence. For example, following delayed transitions to adult social and economic independence in high-income countries, it has been recently proposed that the meaning of adolescence should be extended to refer to the ages of 10-24 years, as opposed to [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] years (33). These discussions should include a consideration of the potential for chosen terminology to lead to popular misunderstanding, and an acknowledgement of cultural and contextual variation in the timing of life transitions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such efforts would also encourage discussions about the potentially distinct drivers and wellbeing implications of marriage in late vs. early adolescence. Likewise, more care needs to be taken to not present all cases of early marriage as forced by definition-a statement which is at odds with a growing body of research in both low and high-income settings (15,16,(18)(19)(20)25). These recommendations do not deny the existence or seriousness of forced child marriage, or that coercion, consent and the emergence of autonomy among young people are complicated phenomena to define and measure (8).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…14). This stance contrasts a growing body of evidence that female adolescents are often active agents in the marriage process in some cultural contexts, and that early marriage does not always imply coercion or clear costs to wellbeing in the context of locally-available alternatives (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). With such framing, the USA and other high-income populations are implicitly positioned as morally superior to those where child marriage is more common.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

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What does the American public know about ‘child marriage’?

Lawson

Lynes

Morris

et al. 2019

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Background: A global campaign to eradicate ‘child marriage’ (<18 years) increasingly targets governments, the private sector and the general public as agents of change. Here, we measure the current state of public knowledge of child marriage, identifying potential misconceptions and inaccurate beliefs. We then consider the implications of our survey for global health initiatives addressing child marriage. Methods: We surveyed USA nationals via the online survey platform MTurk. Participants provided sociodemographic information and answered ten questions about their understanding of child marriage. To identify potential misconceptions and inaccurate beliefs we present descriptive statistics for participant responses paired with correct answers where available. Results: 609 participants provided data for analysis. 59% were women, with a mean age of 37 years, just over half (55%) were university educated, and the majority (79%) were currently employed. Half of those surveyed mistakenly believed that the cut-off for child marriage is younger than the legal threshold of 18 years, and nearly three-quarters incorrectly believed that most child marriages occur at 15 years or below (child marriage primarily takes place in later adolescence). The large majority of participants incorrectly believed that child marriage is illegal throughout the United States (it’s illegal in only two states), and mistakenly believed that child marriage primarily takes place among Muslim-majority regions of the Middle East and North Africa (it is most common in sub Saharan Africa and South Asia). Participants tended to substantially overestimate the prevalence of child marriage in both the USA and abroad. Conclusions: These findings suggest that public understanding of child marriage is not only poor, but also shaped by wider misperceptions of both relatively high and low-income nations. Organizations seeking to empower girls and young women by reducing child marriage need to be cautious of these misunderstandings, and wary of the potential for their own activities to seed misinformation. For example, we suggest the terminology ‘child marriage’, as opposed to ‘teen marriage’ or ‘adolescent marriage’, may contribute to widespread confusion about the typical ages at which child marriages occur.

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“…Although Tanzania is home to considerable ethnic diversity, the Sukuma are the largest ethnic group in the country, comprising approximately 17% of the national population (Malipula 2016). We randomly sampled 743 households to meet the requirements of a larger project studying the wellbeing of women aged 15-35 years and their children (see Schaffnit et al 2019b). The data used for this paper comes from surveys conducted in the 506 households that had a resident child aged under 5 years, with 808 children surveyed.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%