Key Social Norms Take-aways Community norms around the youngest acceptable age of marriage influence adolescent boys’ marriage aspirations but have little to no impact on girls’ aspirations. Instead, adolescents’ own beliefs about acceptable marriage age are consistently associated with when they aspire to marry. These findings suggest that while social norms matter, their influence is gendered and filtered through adolescents’ personal beliefs. For girls, broader factors like education, wealth, and region confound the effects of community norms. The study highlights the need for programs to address adolescents’ own beliefs in addition to shifting community norms, and to tailor strategies based on gender.
Objectives To evaluate whether community-level norms, caregiver beliefs, and adolescents’ own beliefs and perceptions predict adolescent marriage aspirations in Malawi, with a particular focus on gender differences in the formation of those aspirations.
Methods The study uses cross-sectional data from the 2017–18 Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH), including 2,089 adolescents aged 10–16 and 1,452 caregivers. Ordered logistic regression models were used to examine associations between marriage aspirations and multiple levels of influence (community, caregiver, adolescent), stratified by gender. Social norms were operationalized using spatially weighted community averages of caregiver-reported youngest acceptable age of marriage.
Results Community norms for the youngest acceptable age of marriage significantly predicted later marriage aspirations for boys but not for girls. Caregiver beliefs about marriage age were not significantly associated with adolescent aspirations for either gender. Adolescents’ own beliefs about youngest acceptable marriage age were strongly associated with their aspirations: those who believed early marriage was acceptable were more likely to aspire to marry early. Boys who perceived greater personal control over marriage timing aspired to marry later, while girls’ aspirations were more strongly influenced by education level, household wealth, and region. Adolescent beliefs and perceptions did not mediate the relationship between community norms or caregiver beliefs and marriage aspirations.
Conclusions This study introduces a new framework for understanding marriage aspirations in low-income contexts and shows that adolescents’ own beliefs are central to aspiration formation. Social norms matter, but their influence is not uniform across genders. Programs should address adolescent beliefs directly, alongside broader efforts to shift community norms. Interventions must also consider how factors like education and poverty shape girls’ marriage aspirations independently of normative influence.