Key Social Norms Take-aways Social and community norms emerged as some of the most influential drivers of child marriage in southern Bangladesh. Norms surrounding adolescent sexuality, gender, religion, family honor, girls’ mobility, and the “ideal” bride reinforce one another and interact with poverty, girls’ limited agency, and institutional weaknesses. In particular, expectations that girls remain sexually “pure,” avoid relationships with boys, restrict their mobility, obey family decisions, and ultimately belong to their husbands’ families make early marriage appear socially appropriate or protective. The authors argue that preventing child marriage therefore requires interventions that challenge harmful social norms while simultaneously addressing economic, institutional, and safety-related conditions.

Objectives The study aimed to understand the interconnected individual, family, community/social, and policy/institutional drivers of child marriage in southern Bangladesh using a social-ecological framework, with the goal of informing future policies and multi-level interventions.

Methods This iterative, community-engaged qualitative study was conducted in Debhata Upazila, Satkhira District. Researchers conducted 29 focus group discussions, 44 in-depth interviews, and 10 key informant interviews with married and unmarried adolescent girls, parents, grandmothers, community members, and influential community leaders. Data collection and analysis occurred iteratively, and thematic analysis used both deductive and inductive coding. The social-ecological model explicitly incorporated social norms by examining community-level socio-cultural, gender, and religious norms alongside individual, family, and institutional factors.

Results Child marriage was driven by interconnected factors across multiple levels. Individual drivers included girls’ limited agency and collective efficacy, self-initiated marriage, and educational performance; family-level drivers included poverty, limited awareness, and gendered preferences favoring boys. Social and community drivers included expectations around family honor, the “ideal” bride and readiness for marriage, control over girls’ sexuality and mobility, fear of violence, religious expectations, and patriarchal beliefs. Norms linking girls’ behavior to family reputation encouraged families to use marriage to prevent premarital relationships or perceived sexual impropriety. Institutional drivers included weak enforcement of marriage laws, limited opportunities for girls, ecological vulnerabilities, and prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusions Child marriage cannot be explained or addressed through a single factor because social norms, girls’ agency, household circumstances, economic vulnerability, and institutional conditions interact to shape marriage decisions. The authors recommend coordinated, multi-level approaches involving multiple stakeholders, community awareness, poverty alleviation and economic opportunities for young women, safer environments for girls, stronger systemic responses, and explicit efforts to challenge harmful social norms supporting child marriage.