Teen Marriages And Their Impact On The Society And The Lives Of Teens Literature Review Samples

Teen marriages, also commonly recognized as child marriages are a social issue in many communities not just in the United States but also in many other societies all over the world. This issue impacts not only girls but also young boys, but the girls are more commonly the victims of this injustice. Teen or child marriages are defined as formal marriages or informal unions between youngsters below the age of eighteen years. These marriages could impact the young boys and girls in more than a single aspect, and the impacts are mostly less than pleasant. It is for this reason that most countries all over the globe set a minimum limit of age for marrying girls and boys with the intention of protecting these young ones from the responsibilities of a marriage before they are ready to shoulder them. This age limit is very commonly set at eighteen years under innumerable laws. Despite the boundaries set by the law, the marriage of young offsprings is still a common practice and in order to stand up for the injustice in practice, it is necessary that we understand the issue and the variables that are attached thereto.
Child or teen marriages are a grave discrimination and a violation of human rights, but why? Adolescents who choose to get married earlier during their age or are forced to do so impact not only their own lives, but also the society. Youngsters who get married early tend to live in poverty either because their education is barely strenuous to support their lifestyles or because the girls get busy caring for their off springs rather than paying attention to their career and so they fall behind when it comes to their working life. Also, children who come along to the houses of parents who are too young tend to take up most of the cost and the parents can hardly think of their own well-being in the presence of their young ones. In addition, the poverty that strikes the household of young parents not only affects the parents badly, but the children that they raise are also sometimes malnourished and educationally inept. Teen marriages is also a very major contributing factor to overpopulation because teenagers have supplementary time during which they can have babies, and they tend to slip into the habit of successive pregnancies with not marked gap in between.
The problem, however, is that in a marriage that is forced, the actual victims are the participants of those marriages. Child brides according to the recent statistics are twice as likely to die in childbirth compared to women who are in their 20’s. Not only are that, but the children born from very young girls are weaker and less likely to survive infancy. Girls who are married away too young face a greater risk of violence by the hands of the partner and also sexual violence compared to girls who are married later in their lives.
We know that these marriages are superfluous, but why do they happen? A very common cause of these unwanted unions is poverty. People who come by challenges in balancing their basic needs use early marriages of their daughters as a strategy for economic well-being. The traditional beliefs and practices in many parts of the world also measure the success of a woman by the standard of the people that she is married to and the number of children that she has. Education is a matter that is very low on the list of priorities in these regions and for this very reason, early marriage is a norm. Another very major concern of the parents that forces their decision to marry their girls at a very young age is their fear of dishonor and disgrace that a girl might face from extramarital sexual affairs.
My own opinion on the subject of early marriages as unbiased and logical as may be of the rest of the educated population. It is an injustice that many girls are unfairly forced to live through and is a matter that should be seriously taken a stand against. I believe that educating and mobilizing the parents of young children could prove to be a huge step in the right direction. Also, families that live in financially healthy situations may be even less compelled to marry off their girls when it is very clearly evident that it is far from good for their well being. These are just a few measures that could improve the quality of uncountable lives that are here and also those that have yet to come.
The Arab community is as aware of this problem as any other community may be and for the longest time, early marriage was a practice that was a widely accepted norm that no one took a notice of. Thankfully, the situation has seen a change for the better, and the women of the Arabic community are marrying later and are more mobilized towards the encroachment of their careers. This is a positive change that is going to improve the situation for these women for the better and the status and the importance of a family in the Arabic culture may as well shift towards a positive direction.

References

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Dahl, G. B. (August 2010). Early Teen Marriage and Future Poverty. Demography, 689-718.
Girls not Brides. (n.d.). Child Marriage and the Law. Retrieved from Girls not Brides: http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage-law/
Gorney, C. (2011, June). Child Brides. Retrieved from National Geographic: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/child-brides/gorney-text
Malhotra, A. (2010, July 15). The Causes, Consequences and Solutions to Forced Child Marriage. Retrieved from International Centre for Research on Women: http://www.icrw.org/files/images/Causes-Consequences-and%20Solutions-to-Forced-Child-Marriage-Anju-Malhotra-7-15-2010.pdf
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T, Y. (2013, September 20). Child marriage problem: causes and consequences. Retrieved from The Global Discussion: http://globaldiscussion.net/topic/1425-child-marriage-problem-causes-and-consequences/
UNICEF. (2014, October 22). Child marriage. Retrieved from UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_58008.html
World Health Organization. (2013, March 7). Child marriages: 39 000 every day. Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2013/child_marriage_20130307/en/