Social science: Community intervention shown to reduce child marriage (Nature)
12 March 2026
A community wide programme that tackles social norms around girls’ education and marriage reduced the rate of child marriage by more than 80% in a cohort of more than 1,000 girls in northern Nigeria. The findings, published in Nature, show that when communities use a range of approaches to support girls to pursue schooling, early marriage becomes far less common, demonstrating the potential of multi layered interventions.
Globally, 12 million girls marry before the age of 18 each year. Northern Nigeria has some of the highest rates in the world, with around 78% of girls marrying before they turn 18. Early marriage is linked to reduced schooling, lower autonomy and increased health risks; girls who give birth before age 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women who give birth in their twenties. Existing interventions often focus on isolated factors associated with child marriage, such as pre-existing attitudes, and do not always look at the many facets that lead to its occurrence and continuation, leaving uncertainty around its exact causes.
To explore how a multifaceted approach might work, Isabelle Cohen and colleagues evaluated ‘Pathways to Choice’, a community focused two year programme implemented in 18 northern Nigerian communities. The initiative engaged community and religious leaders, enrolled out of school girls in safe space groups, provided remedial education and supported re enrolment in school or vocational training. Researchers surveyed 1,181 unmarried girls aged between 12 and 17 before the programme began in 2018, and again in 2020. They found that 79% of girls in communities that received the intervention remained unmarried, compared with only 13.8% in control communities, just over an 80% decrease. Those enrolled in the programme also showed improvements in school attendance, self advocacy, self perception and gender equitable beliefs. While increased schooling accounted for roughly 30% of the reduction in child marriage, broader shifts in social norms and community support made the largest difference.
The authors conclude that bundled, community wide interventions that increase the perceived value of girls’ education and reduce social penalties for delaying marriage can deliver substantial, lasting change. Their findings strengthen the evidence for integrated approaches to reducing child marriage and improving life outcomes for girls worldwide.
Cohen, I., Abubakar, M. & Perlman, D. A big-push community intervention reduced rates of child marriage by 80%. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10206-2
Policy Brief: Marriage of adolescent girls in Nigeria reduced by 80% by ‘big push’ intervention
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00720-8
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