Psychological Impact Evaluation of Early Marriages

Abstract

Lower awareness of health knowledge, physical growth and development, women bearing children at early ages face higher risk of maternal health problems, disability and death, reinforces risking problems for their newborns as a result, early marriages are always being a very big issue in developing countries specially in primitive uncivilized districts of Asia including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh etc. Moreover it's a controversial fact that in civilized society, evidences of getting married in early ages are greatly increased because of our religious beliefs, norms and social impacts. Due to early marriages young girls don't have the ability to deal with responsibilities, early pregnancy and pregnancy-related mortality and morbidity, causing major physiological and psychological health issues in adolescent girls, resulting in losing relationship confidence and ability to maintain a healthy relationship. Purpose of the study was to evaluate the aspects of psychological disturbances occurring in married young girls along with depression rate and educational withdrawal, with comparison of unmarried young girls of the same age specifically there is a strong correlation between a woman's age at marriage and the education that she receives. Uniformly across the countries, early marriage is associated with lower educational attainment. Observational study was conducted through multi logistic structured questionnaire and girls in b/w age of 13 to 35 were included. On the basis of above study it is concluded that early marriage, multiple responsibilities and early pregnancies are risk factors of depression and it is further evaluated that married girls are at higher level when compared with unmarried.

Early Marriage;A Root of Current Physiological and Psychosocial Health Burdens

“…Females are exposed to psychological diseases as they are deprived of the freedom to speak or share. Moreover these females become victims of psychotic disorders like immobility, lack of confidence (Ahmed, 2013). Further we came to know that early married girls are more prone to risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.…”

“…If the newborns survive it may have low birth weight and the female itself may prone to anemia, and due to poor developed body, large number of child bearing years there are more chances of miscarriages, heart diseases, low body weight, malnutrition, atherosclerotic risk and hormonal imbalances. Girls aged between 10-14 are five times more likely to die in pregnancies as compared to other females married in appropriate age (Ahmed, 2013;Kebede, 2007& Gallo, 2003. Such events occurring in a girl's life may bring up some changes in physical and psychological behaviors which results in mental distress, depression and other unexplained gynecologic symptoms.…”

“…Marriage at young age is not supposed favorable to girl's protection and other economic reasons as teenage is for education, maturity, grooming oneself and an age for learning various life experiences. Quality education, moral support and family ethics can lend a great helping hand for such girls to be aware of the health consequences which can make them eligible to deal better in future (Ahmed, 2013).…”

On the impact of early marriage on schooling outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia

“…Early marriage has a wide-ranging negative effect on girls beyond education. Girls who married young are more likely to suffer from psychological disadvantage (Ahmed, Kant, Alia, and Noushad, 2013) (e.g., lack of self-esteem and depression) and sexual abuse with 4 increasing risks of sexual transmitted diseases and HIV (Clark, 2004;Clark, Bruce, and Dude, 2006). Young married girls also start child-bearing soon after marriage with increased health risks from complications in pregnancy and death during delivery, low-birth weight, and high risk of infant mortality (UNICEF, 2005;Godha, Hotchkiss, and Gage, 2013;Raj et al, 2010).…”

Spousal metabolic risk factors and incident hypertension: A longitudinal cohort study in Iran

“…In addition, due to adverse physiological and psychological impact of early marriage, 41,42 we excluded couples who married before 18 years; therefore, the findings may not be generalizable to all couples. Second, there was missing data on several covariates, and also, some study participants were lost to follow-up.…”