In “Protecting Young Women from HIV/AIDS: The Case Against Child and Adolescent Marriage,� (published by the Guttmacher Institute) Shelley Clark of McGill University et al. analyze data from national surveys from 29 countries and find that:
Marriage exposes young women to frequent, unprotected sex, especially when the couple wants to have children. In most countries, more than 80% of adolescents who had had unprotected sex in the last week were married.
Husbands of adolescent wives tend to be much older (by 5-14 years, on average) and more sexually experienced then their wives and are therefore more likely to be HIV-positive. Adolescent brides are also more likely to marry into polygamous unions.
Adolescent wives are often cut off from formal education as well as other public sources of information such as regular television and radio programs. In all 29 countries, women who married as adults stayed in school longer than young women who married before they turned 18.
Even when they are aware of HIV risk, most young married women rely on remaining faithful to their husbands—and their husbands remaining faithful to them—as their sole protection from the virus.
The reseach continues with recommendation to prevent this spread of HIV.
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