Evaluation of the Early Age Married Girls Applying to Our Department

Bulut Kasım^1*, Uysal Cem¹, Korkmaz Mustafa¹, Sivri Süleyman², Bozkurt İsmail¹, Durmaz Ubeydullah¹, Tıraşçı Yaşar¹, Gören Süleyman¹

¹Forensic Medicine Department, Dicle University, Diyarbakir, Turkey.
²Diyarbakir Directorate of Forensic Medicine Office, Diyarbakir, Turkey.

DOI: 10.4236/ojped.2015.54050                

Abstract

Underage marriages are going on to keep their commonness in countries such as Turkey although frequencies of them are decreasing in the world. According to the law, marriages before eighteen years old are also defined as early marriages. Being married of girls at early ages makes these children deprived from education life and their vicinity. Therefore severe psychological difficulties occur in these children. In this study, 19 girls, who were being married at early ages and psychologically examined between January 1^st, 2013-April 1^st, 2015 in physical and mental health committee of the Dicle University, Medical Faculty, were taken to evaluate. These 19 cases were retrospectively assessed in sociodemographic data (age, education level, and relative degrees), type of marriage, state of mind, forensic reports and files. Of 410 cases, who admitted to our mental and physical committee, 19 (4.6%) were at the category of early age marriage. These 19 cases range between 13 and 17 years of age. Three of them (15.8%) were thinking of suicide and one of them (5.3%) attempted suicide. At least, one mental disorder was diagnosed in 8 (42.1%) of the cases and the most common diagnose was acute stress disorder in four (21.1%) cases. It has been stated that marriages at early ages are caused by economic and cultural reasons. As conclusion, being married of children at early ages is an important risk factor in social and mental health.

Keywords

Child Marriage, Mental Disorders, Forensic Medicine

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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