Determinants of Early Marriage From Married Girls' Perspectives in Iranian Setting: A Qualitative Study Publisher Pubmed



Montazeri S¹ ; Gharacheh M¹ ; Mohammadi N² ; Alaghband Rad J³ ; Eftekhar Ardabili H⁴
Source: Journal of Environmental and Public Health Published:2016

Abstract

Early marriage is a worldwide problem associated with a range of health and social consequences for teenage girls. Designing effective health interventions for managing early marriage needs to apply the community-based approaches. However, it has received less attention from policymakers and health researchers in Iran. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore determinants of early marriage from married girls' perspectives. The study was conducted from May 2013 to January 2015 in Ahvaz, Iran. A purposeful sampling method was used to select fifteen eligible participants. Data were collected through face-to-face, semistructured interviews and were analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach. Three categories emerged from the qualitative data including family structure, Low autonomy in decision-making, and response to needs. According to the results, although the participants were not ready to get married and intended to postpone their marriage, multiple factors such as individual and contextual factors propelled them to early marriage. Given that early marriage is a multifactorial problem, health care providers should consider a multidimensional approach to support and empower these vulnerable girls. © 2016 Simin Montazeri et al.