A 16-year-old Rohingya girl in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh © Nathalie Bertrams/GAGE 2024

Child marriage and its consequences for adolescent mental health in conflict-affected contexts: evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Jordan

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publication

Child marriage and its consequences for adolescent mental health in conflict-affected contexts: evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Jordan

03.06.2025 | Cross-country

Country

Cross-country

Capability domains

Bodily integrity and freedom from violence

Audience type

Researcher

Year of publication

2025

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Authors

Nicola Jones, Elizabeth Presler-Marshall, Sarah Baird, Sara Luckenbill, Jennifer Seager, Shruthi Dileep, Khadija Mitu, Workneh Yadete

Over the past decade there has been burgeoning interest in better understanding the complex economic and social drivers of child marriage to support evidence-informed prevention efforts. By contrast, notwithstanding the estimated 12 million girls globally who marry each year as children, the evidence base on the consequences of child marriage is much thinner – as are programming efforts to support ever-married girls. Moreover, existing evidence focuses predominantly on the education, physical health, and income-generation challenges that married adolescents face.


There is only limited research exploring the effects of child marriage on adolescent girls’ psychosocial well-being and mental health, particularly in conflict-affected contexts. To contribute to these research lacunae, this article draws on cross-country mixed-methods data with 8,567 young people aged 15–24 collected in three conflict-affected geographies between 2021 and 2023: the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh; Palestinian and Syrian refugee and host communities in Jordan; and two conflict-affected zones in Ethiopia.


Suggested citation:

Jones, N., Presler-Marshall, E., Baird, S., Luckenbill, S., Seager, J., Dileep, S., … Yadete, W. (2025). Child marriage and its consequences for adolescent mental health in conflict-affected contexts: evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Jordan. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 1–22 ( https://doi.org/10.1080/17450128.2025.2467697)