Overlooked and unaddressed: A narrative review of mental health consequences of child marriages
Summary & Objectives
This narrative review synthesises global evidence on the mental health consequences of child marriage, addressing a major gap in a literature that has historically prioritised sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Drawing on systematic searches of peer-reviewed studies published between 2000 and 2020, the review aims to assess how mental health has been conceptualised and measured in relation to child marriage, identify the main mental health outcomes associated with early marriage, and map the social and structural pathways through which these harms occur
Findings
Across 21 studies covering 12 countries, largely in the global South, child marriage was consistently associated with poor mental health outcomes, most notably depression, psychological distress, anxiety, suicidality, and substance misuse. Depression emerged as the most frequently reported condition, while emotional distress was closely linked to intersecting social factors including intimate partner violence, poverty, isolation, and complications related to early pregnancy and childbirth. The review shows that these factors rarely act in isolation; instead, they cluster to produce compounded mental health risks for girls and women married in childhood. Evidence on boys, LGBTQI individuals, humanitarian settings, and intergenerational mental health impacts was notably scarce, highlighting significant gaps in the existing literature
Recommendations
Efforts to end child marriage should be complemented by explicit mental health support for those already married as children. Interventions should combine psychological care with action on social drivers such as poverty, violence, and social isolation, using community-based and participatory approaches. The review calls for longitudinal and mixed-methods research to clarify causal pathways, expand evidence on under-studied populations, and inform integrated programmes that promote both mental wellbeing and structural change in contexts where child marriage persists
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