ArticleEvolutionary human sciences2022
Why marry early? Parental influence, agency and gendered conflict in Tanzanian marriages.
Article in Evolutionary human sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring adolescent girls' involvement in decision-making processes regarding child marriage: A systematic review.Narra J · 2025Pooled it
- A study on early marriages and pregnancy health in the South-Eastern region of Türkiye.BMC women's health · 2025Article
- Child marriage in contexts of forced displacement: exploring drivers and decision-making in Jordan through a gender and generational lens.Frontiers in sociology · 2025Article
- Socio-ecological factors of girl child marriage: a meta-synthesis of qualitative research.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Using feminist methodologies to explore female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage in low- and middle-income contexts.Frontiers in research metrics and analytics · 2024Article
- Associations between lifetime pregnancy and sexual risk behaviors among 15-24-year-old adolescent girls and young women in South Africa: Secondary analyses of the 2016 Demographic Health Survey.PLOS global public health · 2024Article
- Sex ratios and gender norms: why both are needed to understand sexual conflict in humans.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Review
- Misperception of peer beliefs reinforces inequitable gender norms among Tanzanian men.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Article
- Does bride price harm women? Using ethnography to think about causality.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Review
- Individual and interpersonal factors influencing child marriage: A qualitative content analysis study.PloS one · 2024Article
- The impact of market integration on arranged marriages in Matlab, Bangladesh.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Article
- Socioeconomic benefits and limited parent-offspring disagreement in arranged marriages in Nepal.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Article
- Gendered conflict in the human family.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Global health interventions increasingly target the abolishment of 'child marriage' (marriage under 18 years, hereafter referred to as 'early marriage'). Guided by human behavioural ecology theory, and drawing on focus groups and in-depth interviews in an urbanising Tanzanian community where female early marriage is normative, we examine the common assumption that it is driven by the interests and coercive actions of parents and/or men. We find limited support for parent-offspring conflict. Parents often encouraged early marriages, but were motivated by the promise of social and economic security for daughters, rather than bridewealth transfers alone. Moreover, forced marriage appears rare, and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) were active agents in the transition to marriage, sometimes marrying against parental wishes. Support for gendered conflict was stronger. AGYW were described as being lured into unstable relationships by men misrepresenting their long-term intentions. Community members voiced concerns over these marriages. Overall, early marriage appears rooted in limited options, encouraging strategic, but risky choices on the marriage market. Our results highlight plurality and context dependency in drivers of early marriage, even within a single community. We conclude that engaging with the importance of context is fundamental in forging culturally sensitive policies and programs on early marriage.
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