The vast majority of sexually active adolescent girls in South Asia are married, often at their parents behest, and frequently with limited, if any, contact with their new spouse before the day of marriage. As junior members of a new household, these girls have limited access to information, and possibly constrained access to other social support and services they need. Most are under considerable pressure to bear a child quickly upon marriage. Yet despite these vulnerabilities, these girls get no special attention from existing social and health service programs.
The first time parents project is seeking to understand these girls’ experience and this transition to marriage and parenthood, and is seeking to develop interventions that increase married girls’ social support and improve their reproductive and sexual health and well-being.
This session will present preliminary findings from the diagnostic phase. In two sites in India and one in Bangladesh, in-depth interviews were conducted with young married women pregnant or recently postpartum for the first time, husbands of such young girls, and mothers/mothers-in-law of such girls, among others. Implications of these findings for interventions will be discussed. The interventions, developed together with local partners, will be presented.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to articulate the unique situation of married adolescent girls in India and Bangladesh, and to recognize the implications of these girls' experiences for interventiions.
Keywords: Adolescents, International, Reproductive Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Population Council
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.