Forced Marriage and Birth Outcomes

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Public Health
• Demography

Background:

• Bride kidnapping, a form of forced marriage, involves abduction and lack of spousal choice.
• Forced marriage can lead to adverse outcomes for women and their children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of marriages resulting from bride kidnapping on infant birth weight.
• To quantify the birth weight differences between children from kidnap-based marriages and other marriage types.

Main Methods:

• Utilized unique survey data from Kyrgyzstan.
• Employed Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Instrumental Variable (IV) estimation techniques.
• Compared birth outcomes for women in kidnap-based versus other marriage types.

Main Results:

• Children born to mothers in kidnap-based marriages exhibit lower birth weights.
• The most significant difference in birth weight was observed between kidnap-based and arranged marriages.
• Birth weight loss ranged from 2% to 6% of average birth weight.

Conclusions:

• This study provides one of the first statistically sound estimates of forced marriage's impact on birth outcomes.
• Findings indicate adverse consequences for women in forced marriages and potentially for their offspring.
• Highlights the detrimental effects of bride kidnapping on infant health.