child marriage

Child marriage is a practice involving a marriage or domestic partnership, formal or informal, that includes an individual under 18 and an adult or other child.

Research has found that child marriages have many long-term negative consequences for child brides and grooms. Girls who marry as children often lack access to education and future career opportunities. It is also common for them to have adverse health effects resulting from early pregnancy and childbirth. Effects on child grooms may include the economic pressure of providing for a household and various constraints in educational and career opportunities. Child marriage is part of the practice of child betrothal, often including civil cohabitation and a court approval of the engagement. Some factors that encourage child marriages include poverty, bride price, dowries, cultural traditions, religious and social pressure, regional customs, fear of the child remaining unmarried into adulthood, illiteracy, and the perceived inability of women to work.