Literature Review: The Impact of Early Marriage on the Growth and Development of Toddlers

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_24How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Early Marriage; Growth; Development; Toddlers

Abstract

Early marriage represents a pervasive public health and social challenge that transcends national boundaries, cultural traditions, and religious frameworks, while simultaneously undermining progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those related to health and well-being (SDG 3) and gender equality (SDG 5). Of particular relevance is Target 5.3, which calls for the eradication of harmful practices, including child marriage. Existing evidence demonstrates that pregnancies occurring during adolescence are closely linked to impaired fetal growth and developmental trajectories, thereby elevating the risk of childhood nutritional deficiencies such as wasting and underweight. Against this backdrop, the present study aims to investigate the influence of early marriage on the physical growth and developmental status of toddlers. A systematic review was undertaken following the PRISMA guidelines, involving sequential screening of titles, abstracts, full texts, and methodological rigor using the search terms “Impact of Early Marriage,” “Growth,” and “Development of Toddlers.” Relevant literature was retrieved from multiple electronic databases, namely ScienceDirect, PubMed, Sci-Hub, ProQuest, and Google Scholar, and comprised peer-reviewed qualitative and quantitative studies published between 2016 and 2025. Synthesis of the reviewed evidence consistently reveals that early marriage is associated with detrimental effects on toddlers’ growth and developmental outcomes, highlighting the urgent need for integrated, multisectoral strategies to prevent early marriage and reduce its adverse implications for child health and development.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - St. Nurbaya
AU  - Endang Sutisna Sulaeman
AU  - Anik Lestari
AU  - Emi Widiyanti
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/06
TI  - Literature Review: The Impact of Early Marriage on the Growth and Development of Toddlers
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Multidisciplinary Studies 2025 (ICOMSI 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 284
EP  - 291
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_24
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_24
ID  - Nurbaya2026
ER  -