Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Child Marriage: Parents’ Lived Experience Of Decision-Making Processes And Consequential Health Effects, Hadiza Yakub, Jirina Foltysova, Jeanne Connors

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Child or early marriage is increasingly recognized as a public health concern that poses significant health challenges for a young bride. This qualitative research explored child marriage among Hausa-Fulani ethnolinguistic communities in Northeastern Nigeria. Qualitative interviews were conducted with parents who married off their underage children. The central research questions relied on a theoretical foundation of social values theory and interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study results provide an in-depth understanding of the child marriage phenomenon by exploring parents' lived experiences and the role of a child bride's health in the decision-making process and illustrates how social values and norms drive …