A measure for social norms and personal beliefs on child marriage: Developing the Child Marriage Acceptability Scale (CMAS)

For many girls around the world, the path to adulthood is cut short by a single event: marriage before the age of eighteen. This practice, known as child marriage, is not merely a personal choice but a complex social phenomenon driven by deep-seated beliefs, economic pressures, and unwritten rules that govern how communities behave. While poverty and lack of education are well-known drivers, researchers have long struggled to measure the invisible force of social norms—the shared expectations that tell a family what is acceptable and what is not. Without a way to measure these norms, it is difficult to know if programs designed to change minds are actually working. Understanding why people believe child marriage is acceptable is the first step toward ending it, yet for years, there has been no reliable tool to capture these shifting attitudes across different cultures.

To solve this problem, a team of researchers set out to build a new measuring stick, a tool they call the Child Marriage Acceptability Scale. They gathered data from more than 6,500 young people, aged fifteen to twenty-four, across five countries: Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, and Zambia. Alongside a massive household survey, the team conducted in-depth conversations with community members, religious leaders, and parents to understand the local context. The goal was to create a questionnaire that could distinguish between what a person personally believes, what they think their neighbors believe, and how economic hardship influences these views. By splitting their data into two groups, the researchers first explored the patterns in the answers to find hidden themes, and then tested those themes on the second group to see if they held true. This rigorous process allowed them to strip away confusing questions and refine the tool until it was sharp and precise.

The result is a streamlined set of twenty-eight questions that reveal three distinct pillars supporting the acceptability of child marriage. The first pillar is social norms, which captures the pressure of the community—what people think others expect of them. The second is personal beliefs, reflecting an individual's own convictions about marriage, honor, and gender roles. The third pillar is economic aspects, covering the financial realities that make early marriage seem like a necessary solution for survival. When the researchers scored the responses, they found that acceptability varied significantly by location. Indonesia showed the highest level of acceptability, while Malawi showed the lowest. These numbers were not just abstract scores; they told a real story. In countries where the score was higher, young people tended to say that girls should marry at a younger age. Conversely, in places with lower scores, the community was more likely to support delaying marriage.

The study confirmed that these three factors are deeply interconnected but distinct. For instance, a parent might personally believe that a girl should finish school, yet still agree to a marriage because the community expects it, or because the family needs the financial security that comes with a bride price. The researchers found that the scale successfully captured these nuances, showing that social norms and personal beliefs often pull in different directions. In Indonesia, traditions like specific marriage customs and fears about pre-marital sex kept the acceptability scores high. In Malawi and Zambia, where scores were lower, the community seemed more concerned with the risks of teenage pregnancy and was beginning to prioritize sending girls back to school rather than forcing them into marriage. The data also revealed that as the acceptability score went up, the age at which people said a girl should marry went down, proving the tool works as a reliable indicator of attitude.

This new scale offers a practical way for governments and organizations to track progress over time. Instead of guessing whether a campaign is changing minds, they can use this tool to measure the shift in community attitudes directly. The researchers noted that changing these deep-rooted norms is a slow process, likely taking years or even decades, so this tool is designed for long-term monitoring. While the scale was tested on young people and validated against interviews with elders and leaders, the authors acknowledge that further testing with other groups, such as caregivers and religious figures, would strengthen its use. Ultimately, this work provides a clear, validated method to understand the invisible rules that keep child marriage alive, offering a way to measure the distance between where a community stands today and where it needs to be to protect the future of its girls.