‘There should be some freedom in our lives’: Exploring adolescent girls’ experiences of child marriage.

Each year, 12 million girls marry before they become adults. Despite progress on reducing rates of child marriage, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that one-fifth of the world’s girls will marry in childhood. Although the evidence base on the correlates, drivers and consequences of child marriage is growing exponentially, very limited research is aimed at understanding how best to support the girls married in childhood. This report aims to address this lacuna by drawing on data collected as part of the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) longitudinal research programme and explores the myriad and intersecting ways in which child marriage truncates girls’ trajectories and denies them agency over their own lives.

This report draws on mixed-methods data collected between 2017 and 2022 in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Jordan and Lebanon and focuses on girls who are married or have been married. In Bangladesh, our sample includes Rohingya refugee and Bangladeshi girls. In Ethiopia, our sample includes girls from three diverse rural regions – as well as urban areas. In Jordan, our sample includes Syrian and Palestinian refugees, as well as Jordanian girls. In Lebanon, our sample includes girls who are Syrian and Palestinian refugees.

After setting the stage with a brief overview of what we have learned about girls’ marriages and marital families, we present our findings by capability domain as laid out in the GAGE conceptual framework. These include psychosocial well-being, physical health, education and learning, bodily integrity, economic empowerment, and voice and agency.