Teenage marriage

Teen marriage is the union of two adolescents, ranging in age from 13 to 19, who are joined in marriage. Many factors contribute to teen marriage such as love, teen pregnancy, religion, security, family and peer pressure, arranged marriage, economic and political reasons, social advancement, and cultural reasons. Studies have shown that teenage married couples are often less advantageous, may come from broken homes, may have little education, and work low status jobs in comparison with those that marry after adolescence.

A majority of teen marriages suffer from complications, with many ending in divorce. In the United States, half of teen marriages dissolve within 15 years of the marriage. Even in Nepal girls and boys who marry without their consent before age 12 in most rural regions later end up divorced saying that they were married at a young age and were unknown about it and don't want to live with each other further. The rate of teen marriage, however, is decreasing due to the many opportunities that are available now that previously were not available before. Presently, teen marriage is not widely accepted in much of the world. Teen marriage is most prevalent in culturally or geographically isolated parts of the world, and it is decreasing where education is the focus of the population.

The legal status of circumstances surrounding teenage marriage varies from one area or era to the next. Marriage has often been used as a tool to create allegiances or agreements, rather than a link between two people in love. Almost every country has a legal minimum age for marriage, which ranges from as low as 12 in some Latin American countries to as high as 22 in China. The age requirement is commonly 16 for women and 18 for men. Despite laws concerning the age of marriage, tradition usually takes precedence and marriage continues to occur at very young ages. In many African and Asian countries as much as two-thirds of teenage women are or have been married. In many nations, marrying off a young daughter means one less mouth to feed and no fear of illegitimate children, a dishonor to the family. But these youthful brides often suffer physical and psychological damage, according to a UNICEF report.

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