Social norms and child marriage in Cameroon: An application of the theory of normative spectrum

Beniamino Cislaghi,Gerry Mackie,Paul Nkwi,Holly Shakya

doi:10.1080/17441692.2019.1594331

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a qualitative study on social norms and child marriage in rural Cameroon, a country with high prevalence of child marriage but largely ignored in the literature. Study participants (n = 80) were men and women from four different ethnic groups living in four rural villages (two in the Far-North, two in the East). With the assistance of four local interviewers, we conducted 16 semi-structured focus groups to understand how existing social norms contributed to child marriage in participants’ communities. We found great variety in the influence of social norms on people's health-related practices: across these four communities, social norms made compliance with the child marriage practice (respectively) possible, tolerated, appropriate, and obligatory. Effective health promotion interventions should be grounded within sound theoretical understandings of the varying influence of social norms. Using data on child marriage, this paper offers a case study of how that understanding can be developed.

Highlights

IntroductionChild marriage (CM), marital unions in which one (or both) spouses is under 18 years of age
Child marriage (CM), marital unions in which one spouses is under 18 years of age
CM is mostly common in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (UNICEF, 2015) and disproportionately affects girls compared to boys (Svanemyr, Chandra-Mouli, Raj, Travers, & Sundaram, 2015; UNICEF, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

Child marriage (CM), marital unions in which one (or both) spouses is under 18 years of age The practice has various negative health consequences for girls, including, for instance, increased risk of HIV, early pregnancy, depression, and school drop-out The theory hypothesizes that these four characteristics intersect, giving origin to four levels of influence that norms can exert as mentioned above (obligatory, appropriate, tolerated, and possible). Appropriate practices allow for deviations from the norm, but such deviations are not advisable if actors want to achieve a specific individual outcome. At the weakest level of influence (possible), norms can offer a model of what people are doing, making it cognitively accessible to them as a form of social learning. We investigated how the influence of a child marriage norm varied across four ethnic groups in Cameroon, analysing qualitative evidence collected as detailed

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