Natural Hazards Threat and Early Marriage for Women and Girls

• In Event: Hazards, Disasters, and Their Aftermath

Abstract

The growing threat of natural hazards in recent years has prompted research on how major disruptive events affect key demographic phenomena such as health and migration. Yet, less attention has been paid to how these threats interact with gender roles to exacerbate conditions for doubly vulnerable segments of the population. In this paper, we study the link between exposure to natural hazards and early marriage among women and girls in Latin America. We argue that environmental shocks will decrease marriage age for women and also increase the incidence of child marriage among girls as families use these adaptation practices to cope with the increased economic insecurity brought by disasters. Using geolocated data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project, we show how exposure to climate disasters are closely related to decreasing marriage age among women, child marriage among girls, and attitudes toward these practices among the general population. By providing insights about the impacts of natural hazards on the demographic behaviors of vulnerable individuals, we illustrate the importance of more comprehensively considering the existence of heterogeneity in vulnerability stemming from adaptation to growing natural hazards.

Authors

• Boyoon Lee, Vanderbilt University

• Guilherme Natan Fasolin, Vanderbilt University

• Ted Hsuan Yun Chen, George Mason University