Family conflicts as the consequences of early marriages

Abstract

Early marriage contributes to a series of negative results for young girls and the society in which they live. It is a violation of human rights in general and of human’s rights in particular. For both of them, each members of the family, early marriage has profound physical, intellectual, psychological and emotional impacts; cutting off educational and employment opportunities and chances of personal growth (J.Bayisenge, 2010). Besides having a negative impact on girls themselves, the practice of early marriage also has negative consequences on their children, families, and society as a whole. According to UNICEF (2000) it is argued that it is not only girls that pay for early marriage but also the society as a whole. Population pressure, health care costs and lost opportunities of human development are just a few of the growing burdens that society shoulders because of teenage pregnancies.

It is emphasized  that women who are married in their teenager, adolescent period have less decision making power than women whose marriage is delayed until adulthood. They don’t have ability to make decision on their own health care, contraception, household budget, daily household purchases, visit to family and friends etc, (UNICEF, 1996). They have little power in relation to their husbands and in-laws (J.Bayisenge, 2010).

APA determined the early marriages results, and it was noticed that one of these results was aggression as a family conflict. O’Leary and other researchers examined young couples for a long time. Spousal physical aggression after marriage was predicted for 393 young couples who participated in this study. The pre-relationship predictor variables were history of violence in the family of origin, aggression against others during childhood and adolescence, and personality characteristics. Relationship predictor variables were marital discord and spouse-specific psychological aggression, both measured at 18 month after marriage. The findings suggest that predictive models are different for husbands and wives. For both sexes, there were direct paths to marital violence that were not mediated by characteristics of the relationship, as well as paths that originated in or flowed through indicators of the marital relationship. Implications for intervention through marital therapy, individual therapy, or both are discussed (O’Leary et al.,1994).