Perceptions of teenage women about marriage in adolescence in an Iranian setting: A qualitative study

Background and aim Early marriage threatens the health and human rights of millions of girls all around the world. The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of Iranian teenage women about marriage in adolescence. Methods A qualitative study was conducted based on the conventional content analysis approach on 14 teenage married women (aged13-19 years) who attended all urban-rural healthcare centers (4 centers) in Ardabil, Iran between May 2016 and Jan 2017. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Purposeful sampling was continued until data saturation. The data were analyzed using the Graneheim and Landman strategies. Results The mean age at marriage was 13.2 (SD=1.25) years and the duration of marital life ranged from 45 days to 3 years. During the data analysis, three main categories were extracted that each of them consisted of three sub-categories. The main categories, included "a false sense of sexual development", "death of dreams", and "threatened independence". Conclusion Results of this study revealed that teenage women could not comprehend opportunities in life. These findings could help health care providers and policy makers to provide teenage women with special care and better support to prevent negative consequences of early marriage.