TY - JOUR
T1 - Interventions to Prevent Child Marriage Among Young People in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
T2 - A Systematic Review of the Published and Gray Literature
AU - Kalamar, Amanda M.
AU - Lee-Rife, Susan
AU - Hindin, Michelle J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Disclaimer: Publication of this article was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The opinions or views expressed in this supplement are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the funder.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016
PY - 2016/9/1
Y1 - 2016/9/1
N2 - Child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18 years, is a human rights violation that can have lasting adverse educational and economic impacts. The objective of this review was to identify high-quality interventions and evaluations to decease child marriage in low- and middle-income countries. PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL Plus, Popline, and the Cochrane Databases were searched without language limitations for articles published through November 2015. Gray literature was searched by hand. Reference tracing was used, as well as the unpacking of systematic reviews. Retained articles were those that were evaluated as having high-quality interventions and evaluations using standardized scoring. Eleven high-quality interventions and evaluations were abstracted. Six found positive results in decreasing the proportion married or increasing age at marriage, one had both positive and negative findings, and four had no statistical impact on the proportion married or age at marriage. There is wide range of high-quality, impactful interventions included in this review which can inform researchers, donors, and policy makers about where to make strategic investments to eradicate marriage, a current target of the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the cultural factors that promote child marriage, the diversity of interventions can allow decision makers to tailor interventions to the cultural context of the target population.
AB - Child marriage, defined as marriage before the age of 18 years, is a human rights violation that can have lasting adverse educational and economic impacts. The objective of this review was to identify high-quality interventions and evaluations to decease child marriage in low- and middle-income countries. PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL Plus, Popline, and the Cochrane Databases were searched without language limitations for articles published through November 2015. Gray literature was searched by hand. Reference tracing was used, as well as the unpacking of systematic reviews. Retained articles were those that were evaluated as having high-quality interventions and evaluations using standardized scoring. Eleven high-quality interventions and evaluations were abstracted. Six found positive results in decreasing the proportion married or increasing age at marriage, one had both positive and negative findings, and four had no statistical impact on the proportion married or age at marriage. There is wide range of high-quality, impactful interventions included in this review which can inform researchers, donors, and policy makers about where to make strategic investments to eradicate marriage, a current target of the Sustainable Development Goals. Despite the cultural factors that promote child marriage, the diversity of interventions can allow decision makers to tailor interventions to the cultural context of the target population.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Child marriage
KW - Low-income countries
KW - Middle-income countries
KW - Young adult
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.015
DO - 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.06.015
M3 - Review article
C2 - 27562449
AN - SCOPUS:84995519426
SN - 1054-139X
VL - 59
SP - S16-S21
JO - Journal of Adolescent Health
JF - Journal of Adolescent Health
IS - 3
ER -