The words, child bride, conjure up images of religious cults where old men marry young girls. It is hard to imagine that marriages with child brides are legal in some states. Marriage laws vary by state, but it is appalling to learn that in states like Missouri, teens may get married at 15. All the law requires is parental consent (MO.gov). In New Hampshire, females may be 13 and males 14 with parental consent and a waiver (Manchester.gov). Many believe that if an underage person is in love, is pregnant, or is already a parent they should marry. Marriage must be entered into carefully or it may not endure. Parents should be responsible for nurturing their children until they have matured enough to make these decisions on their own. Parents should not be allowed to sign for children under the age of eighteen to marry because children are not old enough to make this major decision.
There are many reasons why children are not prepared to make this kind of decision. The part of the brain responsible for reasoning has not developed enough to make a decision about marriage. They also have not had the education that will be vital to future earnings. In most cases, they will live in poverty making their children more likely to do the same. These things will play a major role in the success of the marriage. The law makes parents responsible for children; they should not sign away that responsibility to enable these children to marry. Studies have shown some of the reasons marrying young increases the chance of divorce.
Women who are 18 have twice the risk of divorce of women 25 and older (Norton 6). One of the reasons, according to studies by the NIH's Institute of Mental Health and UCLA's Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, is that children ...
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...iages”. United States: Los Angeles Times 24 Jan 1997. Print.
Manchester, NH. “Vital Records and Genealogy/Marriage License.” Manchesternh.gov. Jul, 2011. Web. Jul, 2011.
MO.gov. “Living in Missouri>Marriage/Divorce.” MO.gov. Jul, 2011. Web. Jul, 2011
Norton, Arthur and Louisa Miller. Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage in the 1990’s. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1992. Print
Perper, K., Peterson, K., & Manlove, J. “Diploma Attachment Among Teen Mothers,”Jan, 2010. Child Trends, Fact Sheet: Washington, DC. Print.
Stritof, Sheri & Bob.“Another Reason Teens Should Not Marry.”About.com. Jul, 2011. Web. Jul, 2011.
finally the opportune moment for individuals to build a stable family that previous decades of depression, war, and domestic conflicts had restricted. We see that this decade began with a considerable drop in divorce rates and rise in marriage rates, which is often assumed as the result of changed attitudes and values. However, this situation cannot be only just attributed to women’s
Why is a ten-year-old child getting married? Is the “man” also ten years old? Why would an adult want to marry someone who hasn’t even reached adolescence yet? It made sense to them to sell their daughters for marriage once they started menstruating, but why would they sell off a child who probably wouldn’t start to do that for up to two years after the marriage.
Spohn, William C., and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead. "The American Myth of Divorce." Santa Clara University - Welcome. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. .
Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur.Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce.In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same. Most marriages are ending within seven years ofthemarriage for multiple different reasons. Sociologists haveestablisheddivorce as a social problem from the rise in divorcerates due to the early year of marriages (2006).
Traditional arranged marriages were arranged by the parents. They arranged the child's future spouse with little or no input from the child being taken as having final authority ("Arranged marriage"). If the child refuses the choice of their parents, the parents may choose another possible spouse or the child may be punished or disowned (or in rare cases, killed accidentally in the heat of passion or intentionally with legal authority to do so). In traditional arranged marriages, the child had no real input in the wedding. They have no say in who they will marry.
Robson, Ruthann. "The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History: Marriage." Houghton Mifflin Study Center. 19 Nov. 2005. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/women/html/wh_022200_marriage.htm.
Today young adults aren't married as young, but their marriage doesn't last as long either. For instance, Macaulay Culkin and his ex wife married both at the age of 17, but they ended up getting a divorce with him at the age of 19 and her at the age of 20. Their marriage only lasted for 2 years after they found out that their love for each other was really just a fling. I don't think that they should have been thinking about marriage at that age and point in their lives. They both had their own busy lives which they had already planned out what they wanted to happen. I'm sure neither of them had included the part about getting married at the age of 17. 1 also think that they really weren't as ready as they thought they were. They probably figured that because they feel that they are in love that they should just go ahead and take that extra step and get married to be with each for the rest of their lives, which didn't turn out that way.
Shiono, P., & Quinn, L. S. (1994). Epidemiology of Divorce . Children and divorce, 4. Retrieved April 17, 2014, from http://futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=63&articleid=408§ionid=2781
Divorce is a plague that is destroying numerous families across the United States of America. Sadly, when husbands and wives divorce, the children are often caught directly in the middle. Throughout the years divorce has been becoming more and more common. In the 1920's it was a rare find to know a person whom had been divorced, today it is a rarity not to know of one who has been, or will be divorced. Divorce has numerous effects on the structures of families, and many devastating effects on the children that must experience it, although sometimes necessary, divorce radically changes the lives of adolescents and adults alike.
12 Feb 2014. Ludden, Jennifer. “Can Child Marriages be Stopped?”. npr.com. 25 Nov 2013.
According to Reiss F. (2015), in the United States today, thousands of children under the age of 18 have recently taken marital vows- mostly girls married adult men. People have tried arguing that it is illegal since they would be considered underage, but with parental consent it is legal. Women who started off as strong and independent slowly finished off as scared and ashamed. The women were scared because they had no say in denying the marriage and they couldn’t stop whatever was occurring, such as sexual contact, or abuse. They were ashamed because their friends would judge them if they ended up having children and just for how their lives changed. From possibly living with family and going to school, to then move away from your family
“Each year, 15 million girls are married before the age of 18.” (girlsnotbrides.org)Each day there is 28girls every minute being married off while still being children. These are children and should be treated as so, and be protected. At a young age children, should stay children instead of having to worry about what life will bring in child marriage. Child marriage should be banned it, destroys the bright future of a child forever.
Marriage should be a mature and responsible decision; it should be a long-lasting commitment. People seem to take this commitment all too lightly in today's generation and it leads to high rates in early marriages. I strongly claim that early marriage is a violation of children's basic rights and to making decisions about their own lives. With the standards established up to date, marriage comes with manifold responsibilities; most of them teens are not prepared to handle. Nevertheless, marriage is a matter of choice, but would not it be better to wait a couple of years, so as not to regret the consequences, and not to pay dearly for mistakes?
Some developed countries also have a high child marriage rates. One of the important reason is children are forced into marriage by their families, government, and public opinion for the reputation of the whole community. But for those children who are forced to get married may be ravaged by violence in their new family. And also child marriage is seen as a way to evade legal sanction. So we should focus on this corner that we haven’t pay attention to and work together to prohibit child marriage.
Child marriages have long been a practice worldwide for many years. They are mainly driven by tradition, socio-economic status and unfortunately, human exploitations. Needless to say, child marriages are still an acceptable custom in Malaysia. In Malaysia, one is considered a child if he or she is below 18 years of age. Thankfully in recent years, educated women of the public sphere had voiced out their concerns through speeches and campaigns. In 2014, for instance, the National Fatwa Council published a fatwa declaring that child marriages bring harm “to the health and psychology of the child involved” . Additionally, child marriages violate the rights of children. Such marriages are also manipulated to be a means to cover crimes. Hence, I