Alice Taylor, Giovanna Lauro, Marcio Segundo, Margaret Greene

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Brazil – like Latin America in general – has been absent from many global discussions and actions around child and adolescent marriage, which are largely concentrated in hotspots such as Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Available data in Latin America and the Caribbean, however, show that the prevalence levels of marriage in childhood and adolescence are higher in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Brazil and that the absolute numbers are higher in Brazil.

This study, the first of its kind in Brazil, explores attitudes and practices surrounding childhood and adolescent marriage in Pará and Maranhão, the two Brazilian states with the highest prevalence of the practice. The results confirm the mainly informal and consensual nature of unions involving girls under 18 in the contexts studied. The analysis highlights the ways in which a marriage in childhood or adolescence can create or exacerbate risk factors (i.e., related to health, education, and security), while often being perceived by girls or family members as possibilities for stability in contexts of economic insecurity and limited opportunities.

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