Welcome to Kitabi.net - Kitabi is Arabic for Book

I did a previous article on the physical harm done to the mother and the child due to child marriage and also prepubescent intercourse which was really revealing just how dangerous the practice is. In this article I will take a briefer look at the psychological harm that can be done to mothers that are under the age of 18. The age of 18 is the age that the UN recommend as the youngest age that is relatively safe when compared to younger ages. Sadly there has not been as much research done on the psychological harms compared to the physical harm done, which is probably why this article will be shorter that the previous.

 

One piece of research that has gone into this issue to some depth is “Overlooked and unaddressed: A narrative review of mental health consequences of child marriages” by Rochelle A Burgess Et al [1].

To quote from the introduction “Child or early marriage–defined as marriage under the age of 18 –is a harmful practice that occurs globally and can limit the developmental outcomes of girls, and children born into these unions [2]. Current estimates suggest that one in five girls are married before the age of 18, and more than 650 million adult women alive today were married as children [3]. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa bear the largest burdens of child marriages.”

 

The same paper said this in the abstract “Depression was the most reported mental disorder. Anxiety, phobias, psychological distress, substance misuse, negative well-being and anti-social personality disorder were reported less frequently.”

 

The paper then gives us the graph below. If you care to read the paper, I suggest parts 3.2.1 to the end of section are the most informative (link in the notes below).

 

 

 

A paper called “Forced marriage, forced sex: the perils of childhood for girls” by M Ouattara Et al [4] says this in the abstract “Girls who marry before 15 years of age are more likely to be illiterate than their older counterparts, more likely to be dowry payment brides, less likely to come into contact with development projects, have higher rates of infant mortality, and are most vulnerable to sexual violence. In many cases, intercourse is initiated before the girl begins to menstruate. Although adult women also face sexual violence within marriage, this problem is all the more traumatic for girls who lack any information about sexuality. Sex with girls below a certain age is usually covered by rape legislation, but, in countries such as India, this is mitigated by the religiously defined personal laws. The absence of adequate legal and policy action frameworks to deal with the rights of girls, coupled with the lack of sanctions against these abuses, comprise state complicity and neglect of duty under international law to this vulnerable group.”

This is of course another disturbing paper.

 

Conclusion

To be honest the data is a bit thin on the psychological harms caused by child marriage. It also would have been nice if there was research done that compared the different ages of the girls – below the age of 18 is really too broad. I am sure that we all suspect that the younger the age of the child then the greater the risk of harm, but more scientific evidence would be good. Young children are not equipped to bring up babies mentally and the stress to them must be incredible.

 

Another area that needs to be investigated is the affect on the child brides education. In some third world countries women’s education can already be poor but even if they can get a good education, this will greatly be reduced if the bride is of the ages that Islam allows. This is demonstrated in Afghanistan where girls are encouraged to be married by the age of 12, but younger is fine with the rulers of that country. In the west underage mothers will often be encouraged to catch up later in life, which could be after the baby has passed the nursing stage but in Islam countries it is usually expected that a wife and mother will have more children in fairly quick succession.

 

Notes

 

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10021205/

Overlooked and unaddressed: A narrative review of mental health consequences of child marriages

Rochelle A Burgess, Mairi Jeffery, Sabina Adhiambo Odero, Kelly Rose-Clarke, Delanjathan Devakumar

Editor: Aniruddh P Behere

Last accessed July 2025.

 

[2] Efevbera Y, Bhabha J, Farmer PE, Fink G. Girl child marriage as a risk factor for early childhood development and stunting. Soc Sci Med. 2017;185:91–101. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.027  [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

 

[3] Girls Not Brides. Child Marriage Around the World [Internet]. Child Marriage Around the World; 2017. Available from: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/where-does-it-happen/

 

[4] Forced marriage, forced sex: the perils of childhood for girls

M Ouattara, P Sen, M Thomson

Gend Dev. 1998;6(3):27–33. doi: 10.1080/741922829 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Last accessed July 2025.

 

Further information

 

Girls Not Brides

https://www.girlsnotbrides.org

Last accessed July 2025

 

Association of child marriage with suicidal thoughts and attempts among adolescent girls in Ethiopia

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23433537/

Last accessed July 2025

 

Child marriage and its associations with controlling behaviors and spousal violence against adolescent and young women in Pakistan

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25123525/

Last accessed July 2025