Perceiving the Physical and Psychological Consequences of Child Marriage and Strategies Adopted by the Child Spouses

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mohammad Abbaszadeh ¹
• Mohammad Bagher Alizadeh Aghdam ¹
• Bahareh Malekzadeh Dizaj Cheraghi ²

¹ Professor of Sociology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

² M.A student in Social science research, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran

10.30495/jzvj.2025.32485.4072

Abstract

Introduction: Child marriage happens all over the world and it is not a newly emergent phenomenon. The new point in the child marriage is its various consequences and its impact on girls who have inevitably become victims of child marriage. In this regard, the present research aims to understand the physical and psychological consequences of child marriage and the strategies adopted by the child spouses.
Methods: The current research was conducted based on a qualitative method and phenomenological approach. The data were collected from 31 female students of Sufian district who had experienced under 15 year old marriage. The subjects were chosen through interviews and the purposeful sampling method. The validity of the findings was verified through member control and researcher self-monitoring methods. 
Findings: With the incompleteness of the period of childhood and adolescence, which leads to the removal of the dramatic stage, the child faces a world of buried dreams, and the lack of socialization in Mead's view, and as a result, the lack of a coherent self-perception, causes the child's lack of independence and male domination. It stabilizes the children of spouses, dropping out of school, mother's child and being forced to play the role of mother are among the important consequences of early marriage.
Violence in sexual relations is an important consequence of the body that lack of awareness of sexual rights exposes children of spouses to violent sexual relations. Strategies adopted by children of spouses were investigated in six categories. The most important of them are divorce and suicide, which are the last solutions to escape from life that they did not choose.
Discussion: The results showed that the socialization process is very important in the childhood, adolescence and youth phases, and if it does not follow a normal way, it will leave negative consequences that solving their problems will be, not impossible, but very difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare training courses at different micro, medium and macro levels from society to the families.
Conclusion: Since the development process starts from the family, an unhealthy socialization in the family leads to an inevitable unbalanced development at individual and social levels. Basically, the source of discrimination refers to this problem, especially the one-sided discrimination (discrimination against girls) which had a special reflection in the present research.

Keywords

• Child Marriage
• Premature Motherhood
• sexual violence
• patriarchy
• suicide

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