About this Research Topic
Child marriage, also known as early or forced marriage is any formal or informal marriage between a child below the age of 18 years and an adult or another child. The practice more commonly affects adolescent girls than boys. It is harmful and a fundamental violation of human rights irrespective of sex. Child marriage is a global phenomenon that occurs across all regions of the world, with varying prevalence; from a high of 45% in East Asia, 38% in sub-Saharan Africa with the lowest of 18% in the Middle East and North Africa. Although statistics on child marriage prevalence is not readily available for North America, evidence shows that child marriage remains legal in 43 States. Child marriage persists in certain communities in Europe. Currently, statistics indicate that every year about 12 million girls are married off before their 18th birthday. It is feared that if the current trends continue, about 150 million more girls would have undergone child marriage by 2030. This will undermine the global effort to eliminate child marriage by 2030, and indirectly hamper the achievement of other sustainable development goals (SDGs) related to health, nutrition, education, gender equality.
Child marriage undermines healthy adolescence, forecloses educational prospects, limits vocational and career development opportunities, and impairs quality of life of victims. Girls married as children often become victims of human rights abuses and suffer sexual and reproductive health violations, early pregnancy, early childbearing, rapid repeat pregnancies, domestic and gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS, and consequently have poor reproductive health outcomes.
Although SDG Target 5.3 explicitly aims to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030, some traditions, country-level laws and legal frameworks promote and reinforce child marriage, rather than discouraging it. Many countries around the world have laws that allow children to be married before age 18, while others have discordance between the age of consent and age of marriage.
The aim of this Research Topic is to examine child marriage across the world in relation to the SDG target to reduce it by 2030; and, to provide an overview of the health and other challenges and coping strategies of victims of child marriage.
The collection will cover Original Research, Secondary Data Analysis, Evidence Synthesis, Study Protocols, Case Studies, conceptual and theoretical perspectives, and expert opinions.
Specifically, we invite papers that consider:
• Critical literature reviews including scoping and systematic reviews and meta-analysis of all aspects of child marriage at country-level, regional level or global level;
• Identification of research gaps and research priorities; towards reduction in child marriage
• Analysis of programming and interventions that worked or not, highlighting facilitators, best practices, and implementation barriers;
• Country-level stock-taking relating to policies, strategies, and programming efforts including those of non-governmental organizations and civil society efforts towards elimination of child marriage;
• Challenges confronting victims of child marriage
Child marriage undermines healthy adolescence, forecloses educational prospects, limits vocational and career development opportunities, and impairs quality of life of victims. Girls married as children often become victims of human rights abuses and suffer sexual and reproductive health violations, early pregnancy, early childbearing, rapid repeat pregnancies, domestic and gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS, and consequently have poor reproductive health outcomes.
Although SDG Target 5.3 explicitly aims to eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030, some traditions, country-level laws and legal frameworks promote and reinforce child marriage, rather than discouraging it. Many countries around the world have laws that allow children to be married before age 18, while others have discordance between the age of consent and age of marriage.
The aim of this Research Topic is to examine child marriage across the world in relation to the SDG target to reduce it by 2030; and, to provide an overview of the health and other challenges and coping strategies of victims of child marriage.
The collection will cover Original Research, Secondary Data Analysis, Evidence Synthesis, Study Protocols, Case Studies, conceptual and theoretical perspectives, and expert opinions.
Specifically, we invite papers that consider:
• Critical literature reviews including scoping and systematic reviews and meta-analysis of all aspects of child marriage at country-level, regional level or global level;
• Identification of research gaps and research priorities; towards reduction in child marriage
• Analysis of programming and interventions that worked or not, highlighting facilitators, best practices, and implementation barriers;
• Country-level stock-taking relating to policies, strategies, and programming efforts including those of non-governmental organizations and civil society efforts towards elimination of child marriage;
• Challenges confronting victims of child marriage
Keywords: child marriage, SDG, global, adolescent, forced marriage
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
