Driving Momentum to End Child Marriage in Jordan: Evidence for Social Impact

Ending child marriage is an urgent social and public health priority in Jordan. Child marriage forces girls to give up their dreams and is linked with poor maternal and child health outcomes. Robust, quantitative evidence on the effects of child marriage remains limited in Jordan.

Our past research suggests that increased quantitative evidence along with a targeted dissemination strategy at the community and policy levels could have a broad societal impact in generating momentum to end the practice.

We propose conducting a survey with 586 women aged 20-24-years comparing maternal health outcomes, with a specific focus on post-partum depression and other reproductive health outcomes, comparing girls married under the age of 18 to those married as adults.

We will also support a youth-led video competition and social media campaign to translate our results into powerful community-driven messaging, coupled with a high-profile policy-level event designed to generate tangible commitments.