Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Cultural Practices

在一些社会，传统的婚姻习俗可能会产生18岁以下的新娘和新郎。国际发展组织将这种情况称为“童婚”，并认为这损害了人们的福祉，尤其是对女孩而言。因此，在包括美国在内的西方国家的广泛支持下，为根除这些做法投入了大量资源。然而，这一运动也受到了批评，因为它依赖于一种观念，即童年和成年之间有一个明确而绝对的界限，即18岁。事实上，令人惊讶的是，关于“童婚”为何在某些地方仍然普遍存在的客观信息少之又少，尽管它据称有有害的后果。该奖项支持的研究将解决这个问题。该项目的结果将支持政策建议，并有助于更广泛地对过早过渡到成年在任何情况下都必然有害这一概念进行批判性参与。这项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站内进行。将采取混合方法，在两年期间收集定性和定量数据。为了在民族志现实而非刻板印象的基础上建立对早婚的理解，该项目将首先利用焦点小组讨论和深度访谈来确定女性青春期特征的感知健康风险，以及早婚在提高或减轻此类风险方面的作用。女性幸福的多个维度（身心健康、教育、食品安全、赋权和社区尊重）将通过大规模定量调查进行评估，并进行分析，以确定18岁是否成为划定有害婚姻的有意义的门槛，或者是否有其他年龄分类，如果有的话，更好地预测幸福的变化。然后将使用定量和定性数据来检验以下假设：早婚要么是父母强迫和亲子利益冲突的产物，要么是更好地理解为父母提高女儿成功的策略。最后，该项目将量化初潮年龄、第一次生育和婚姻之间的关系，以探索生理和行为转变到成年之间的假设联系。该项目包括指导一名美国博士后学者，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。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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.