Thus, it cannot be concluded from this data that early or child marriage has any more deleterious consequences than later marriage, and, furthermore, the high prevalence of reported suicidal ideation in the non-child bride group suggests rather that marriage itself may be a cause of significant stress for women. 7. Prevention of Child Marriages 7.1 Avoid abandoning the pregnant child When a girl became pregnant, it was culturally accepted that she be sent away to stay with the man responsible. After parents prepared for their children to go to school, had bought uniforms and paid school fees among other things, a child who then fell pregnant was perceived as a very big disappointment; hence many parents would withdraw that child from school in anger. However, many respondents indicated that, while anger was a logical reaction to the disappointment, it was also a major cause of child marriage. After being chased away from home, and being withdrawn from school, effectively the child would be left with no other viable alternatives except to run to the man who impregnated her and plead with or coerce him into marrying her. Respondents felt that parents should assist their children by taking care of the children born out of such unplanned pregnancies, as this would enable their child to continue with her education so that she can be able to fend for herself and her baby in future. Abandoning the child exposed the child to ills such as prostitution and drug abuse. According to younger respondents this was synonymous with condemning their own child to a career of part time menial work, dependence on the husband and most critically, a life of poverty. 7.2 Need for convergence of ideas on morality One main theme reverberating through the child brides’ responses was that their perception of morality was quite different from that held by their parents. For the younger generations, it was perfectly normal and acceptable for a girl to be seen moving around while holding hands with boys. On the contrary, the older generations saw such behaviour as intrinsically immoral and reflective of a depraved youth. Inevitably, younger girls would innocently associate and play with boys in public in full view of their parents and relatives who did not approve of such behaviour. In fact, all girls who were seen associating with male acquaintances in public were viewed as having loose morals, and generally viewed as leaning towards prostitution. Thus, when a girl reported to her parents that she was raped the parents and the wider community doubted her story. And more importantly, when she fell pregnant she was readily attacked for seducing the man and generally for exhibiting herself to men as a sex object. In terms of preventing child marriages, there is a need for more dialogue between parents and their teenage daughters to create some sort of convergence of views about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. This would go a long way towards preventing the ill-informed chasing away of children by their parents as this was a major catalyst for child marriage. 7.3 Provision of Counselling services It is inescapable that when the girl child became pregnant in her teenage it is a shocking and disheartening encounter. The resulting anger, disgust and feelings of anguish and being betrayed are unavoidable and are bound to happen to most parents who will be looking forward to their child being properly married. The provision of counselling services will help the parents to re25