An arranged marriage refers to a marriage in which at least one member of the couple had little to no influence on the selection of their partner. Arranged marriages curtail courtship in that, in some instances, the couple may have never met. While arranged marriage is thought to be a part of Western civilization’s past, it continues to be a part of the present in some subcultures within Western society and others across the world. This method of family formation is important to a cross-cultural understanding of adolescent development, although how it relates to adolescents generally has not been the subject of empirical studies focusing on adolescents, with the notable exception of child marriages (which relates to but certainly is not synonymous with arranged marriages; see Hampton 2010).
Cultures that do practice arranged marriage vary greatly (see Ghimire et al. 2006; Tek’ce 2004). Different groups have a range of ways of determining who is eligible for marriage. For example, some...
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References
Ghimire, D., Axinn, W., Yabiku, S. T., & Thornton, A. (2006). Social change, premarital nonfamily experience, and spouse choice in an arranged marriage society. American Journal of Sociology, 111, 1181–1218.
Hampton, T. (2010). Child marriage threatens girls’ health. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 304, 509–510.
Levesque, R. J. R. (1999). Child sexual abuse: A human rights perspective. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Tek’ce, B. (2004). Paths of marriage in Istanbul: Arranging choices and choice in arrangements. Ethnography, 5, 173–201.
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Arranged Marriage. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_756
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