Journal Of Marriage And The Family, Volume 56, Issue 3 (1994-08). pp. 579-590.
Language:
English
Abstract:
Examined attitudinal, achievement, mental health, and background variables associated with early marriage among female high school students of Hmong descent. In a longitudinal study, 49 female 9th-grade students (aged 14–21 yrs) of Hmong descent completed surveys at baseline and yearly through 12th grade. Additional collected data included interviews with Ss' parents. Results show that more than half of Ss were married by their final year of high school; however, the majority remained in school, had educational expectations similar to their not-married peers, and were not differentiated on indices of depression, psychological well-being, self-esteem, self-derogation, or mastery. Findings suggest that the more usual individualistic models of marriage choice, which would consider this pattern nonnormative or disordered, may not be appropriate for ethnic subgroups such as the Hmong, where high educational expectations coexist with high rates of early marriage and early childbearing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)