What Are the Drivers of Child Marriage? A Conceptual Framework to Guide Policies and Programs

Purpose: The child marriage field lacks a simplified framework that connects an understanding of the drivers of child marriage for girls to decisions about the design of interventions to delay marriage within different contexts and support married girls. Methods: We reviewed existing child marriage frameworks and conducted consultations with experts working on child marriage. We then developed a simplified conceptual framework describing the key drivers of child marriage for girls. We explored how these drivers play out and interact using qualitative data from three settings where child marriage is common: Bangladesh, Malawi, and Niger. Results: The final conceptual framework lays out five core drivers of child marriage for girls, which vary and interact across contexts. Social norms and poverty are shown as core drivers that underlie lack of agency, lack of opportunity, and pregnancy/fear of pregnancy. These drivers reflect community, household, and individuallevel factors. The case studies highlight the important relationships between these drivers, and the way they interact within each context. We use these examples to explore how policymakers and practitioners might identify the most appropriate interventions to address child marriage across different settings. Conclusions: We offer this framework as a starting point to guide more targeted interventions and policies that address the complex combination of child marriage drivers within each setting. By adapting this framework to different settings, those designing and implementing child marriage prevention interventions can identify the key drivers in each setting, understand how those drivers interact, and more effectively target effective interventions. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.

Automated summary

This study presents a simplified conceptual framework describing the key drivers of child marriage for girls, including core factors such as social norms and poverty, and explores how these factors play out and interact in different settings through case studies. By adapting the framework to different contexts, policymakers and practitioners can identify key drivers and effectively target interventions to address child marriage within each setting.