Citation

Reiss F. J. Adolesc. Health 2021; 69(6S): S8-S10.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.07.001

PMID

34809905

Abstract

While American foreign policy deems child marriage a "human rights abuse" and calls on other countries to eliminate it, many Americans remain unaware of the prevalence of child marriage in their own country. One possible explanation for this lack of awareness is that previous studies of American child marriage have been stymied by inadequate recordkeeping.

The present study was the first to use various estimation methods to fill the data gaps. We found that nearly 300,000 children married in the United States (U.S.) between 2000 and 2018.

No central repository in the U.S. collects marriage-age data from all 50 states. Retrieving marriage-certificate data from each state individually and compiling the results is the best alternative, but not all states systematically track or make available these data...

Language: en