Teenage Marriage and High School Dropout among Poor Girls: A Narrative Review for Family Pathways in Bangladesh

Abstract

Despite past research demonstrating a strong link between teenage marriage and high school dropout for teenage girls, mechanisms underlying the relation are not well-understood. Drawing from family life-course perspective and its growing literature, this narrative review found teenage girls’ marriage most likely to occur in the poor families was strongly linked to their early high school dropout, via early family formation, role transition, and school risk behavior. Longitudinal mediating research is needed to understand teenage marriage and high school dropout via early family formation, role transition & high school risk behavior among poor teenage girls in Bangladesh.

Keywords

• teenage marriage
• high school dropout
• family formation
• family role transition