Related News
Child brides 'more likely to face mental disorder'
Source: Agencies |
September 1, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHILD brides more often face psychiatric disorders than women who marry after the age of 18, according to the first study to try to gauge the mental toll of child marriage, which is already tied to health problems.
So far, most research has focused on low and middle-income nations in Africa and Asia, where child marriage is often rampant. But the report, published in Pediatrics, said the US also has underage brides.
Based on a government survey from 2001 and 2002, the study estimated as many as nine percent of US women took their vows when they under 18.
"Child marriage increases the risk of psychiatric disorders in the US," wrote Yann Le Stat, of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and colleagues. "Support for psychiatric vulnerabilities among women married in childhood is required."
About 9.4 million women in the US married at 16 or younger, and 1.7 million were no older than 15, according to the government survey.
Blacks and native Americans are more likely to be child brides than whites, Le Strat and his team said.
Face-to-face interviews with nearly 25,000 women revealed that 53 percent of those who had been child brides had some psychiatric disorder, such as depression or anxiety, compared with 49 percent of women who married as adults.
Women who married under the age of 18 were also more likely to be diagnosed as "nicotine dependent" and with "anti-social personality disorder."
The researchers cautioned that their findings do not prove that marrying as a child will necessarily lead to mental illness.
Yet most women had been married before they developed mental problems, and the findings could not entirely be explained as due to differences in household incomes, education and other social factors, they added.
All but one US state require couples to be at least 18 to be married, but with parental consent, couples can usually marry at 16.
So far, most research has focused on low and middle-income nations in Africa and Asia, where child marriage is often rampant. But the report, published in Pediatrics, said the US also has underage brides.
Based on a government survey from 2001 and 2002, the study estimated as many as nine percent of US women took their vows when they under 18.
"Child marriage increases the risk of psychiatric disorders in the US," wrote Yann Le Stat, of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and colleagues. "Support for psychiatric vulnerabilities among women married in childhood is required."
About 9.4 million women in the US married at 16 or younger, and 1.7 million were no older than 15, according to the government survey.
Blacks and native Americans are more likely to be child brides than whites, Le Strat and his team said.
Face-to-face interviews with nearly 25,000 women revealed that 53 percent of those who had been child brides had some psychiatric disorder, such as depression or anxiety, compared with 49 percent of women who married as adults.
Women who married under the age of 18 were also more likely to be diagnosed as "nicotine dependent" and with "anti-social personality disorder."
The researchers cautioned that their findings do not prove that marrying as a child will necessarily lead to mental illness.
Yet most women had been married before they developed mental problems, and the findings could not entirely be explained as due to differences in household incomes, education and other social factors, they added.
All but one US state require couples to be at least 18 to be married, but with parental consent, couples can usually marry at 16.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
