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未满18岁的新娘和新郎。国际发展组织将其称为“童婚”，认为这会损害幸福，特别是对女孩。因此，在包括美国在内的西方国家的广泛支持下，大量资源被投入到根除这些做法的运动中。然而，这一运动也受到了批评，因为它依赖于一种观念，即儿童和成人之间有明确和绝对的边界，即18岁。事实上，令人惊讶的是，几乎没有客观的信息来解释为什么“童婚”在一些地方仍然盛行，尽管它据称会带来有害的后果。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，并有助于更广泛地批判性地参与这一概念，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内进行。采用混合方法，将在两年内收集定性和定量数据。为了建立对早婚的理解，建立在人种学现实而不是刻板印象的基础上，该项目将首先利用焦点小组讨论和深入采访来确定女性青春期特征的幸福感感知风险，以及早婚在提升或减轻此类风险方面的作用。然后，将通过一项大型量化调查评估女性幸福感的多个维度(身心健康、教育、食品安全、赋权和社区尊重)，并对其进行分析，以确定18岁是否成为界定有害婚姻的有意义的门槛，或者其他年龄分类是否更好地预测幸福感的变化。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的产物，要么是亲子利益冲突的产物，或者早婚是否被更好地理解为提高女儿成功的父母策略。最后，该项目将量化月经初潮年龄、首次生育年龄和婚姻之间的联系，以探索生理和行为转变到成年之间的假设联系。该项目包括一位美国博士后学者的指导，为本科生和研究生提供的研究经验机会，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智力优势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.