Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Cultural Practices

在某些社会，传统的婚姻习俗可能产生18岁以下的新娘和新郎。国际发展组织称之为“童婚”，并认为这会损害福祉，特别是女童的福祉。因此，在包括美国在内的西方国家的广泛支持下，为消除这些习俗的运动投入了大量资源。然而，这一运动也受到批评，因为它依赖于一个概念，即童年和成年之间有一个明确和绝对的界限，即18岁。事实上，令人惊讶的是，关于为什么“童婚”在一些地方仍然普遍存在，尽管它据称会产生有害后果，却几乎没有客观的信息。该奖项支持的研究将解决这个问题。该项目的成果将支持政策建议，并有助于更广泛地批判性地接受这样一种观念，即过早过渡到成年在任何情况下都必然有害。研究将在坦桑尼亚西北部的苏库马人口中进行，那里大约三分之一的女孩在18岁之前结婚。数据收集将在坦桑尼亚国家医学研究所管理的人口监测点进行。将采取混合方法，在两年期间收集定性和定量数据。为了从人种学现实而不是陈规定型观念的角度了解早婚，该项目将首先利用焦点小组讨论和深入访谈，以确定作为女性青春期特征的健康风险以及早婚在提高或减轻这种风险方面的作用。女性福祉的多个维度（身心健康，教育，粮食安全，赋权和社区尊重）将通过一项大型定量调查进行评估，并进行分析，以确定18岁是否是界定有害婚姻的有意义的阈值，或者其他年龄分类，如果有的话，更好地预测福祉的变化。定量和定性的数据，然后将被用来测试的假设，早婚是父母的胁迫和父母与子女的利益冲突的产物，或者是否更好地理解为父母的策略，以提高女儿的成功。最后，该项目将量化初潮年龄，第一次生殖和婚姻之间的关联，以探索生理和行为过渡到成年之间的假设联系。该项目包括一名美国博士后学者的指导，为本科生和研究生提供研究经验的机会，以及长期国际合作研究的能力建设。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In some societies, traditional marriage customs may produce brides and grooms under the age of 18. International development groups refer to these as "child marriages" and consider them to be damaging to well-being, particularly for girls. Therefore, with wide support from Western nations, including the United States, significant resources are invested in campaigns to eradicate these practices. However, this movement has also been critiqued for relying on a notion that there is a clear and absolute boundary between childhood and adulthood that lies at 18 years. In fact, there is surprisingly little objective information available about why "child marriage" remains prevalent in some places despite its purported harmful consequences. The research supported by this award will address this question. Results from the project will support policy recommendations, and contribute to a wider critical engagement with the notion that early transitions to adulthood are necessarily harmful in all circumstances. Research will be carried out in north western Tanzania among a Sukuma population where around one-third of girls marry before 18 years. Data collection will take place within a demographic surveillance site managed by the Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research. Taking a mixed-methods approach, qualitative and quantitative data will be collected over a two-year period. To build an understanding of early marriage grounded in ethnographic reality, rather than stereotype, the project will first utilize focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to identify perceived risks to wellbeing that characterize female adolescence and the role of early marriage in elevating or mitigating such risk. Multiple dimensions of female wellbeing (physical and mental health, education, food security, empowerment, and community respect) will then be assessed via a large quantitative survey, and analyzed to determine if 18 years emerges as a meaningful threshold demarcating harmful marriage, or whether alternative age categorizations, if any, better predict variation in wellbeing. Quantitative and qualitative data will then be used test the hypotheses that early marriage is either the product of parental coercion and a parent-offspring conflict of interests, or whether it is better understood as a parental strategy to enhance the success of daughters. Finally, the project will quantify associations between age at menarche, first reproduction and marriage to explore hypothesized links between physiological and behavioral transitions into adulthood. The project includes the mentorship of an American Postdoctoral Scholar, research experience opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and capacity building for longer-term international collaborative research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.