Education role in early marriage prevention: evidence from Indonesia's rural areas

Background: Adolescent girls might suffer physical and psychological harm from early marriage. Meanwhile, a good education can make women more independent in making decisions for their good. The study analyzes the role of education level in early marriage among adolescents in Indonesia's rural areas.

Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed 4,360 respondents. It used early marriage as an outcome variable, education level as an exposure variable, and six control variables (age, employment, socioeconomic status, age of the first sexual intercourse, access to family planning (FP) information from print media, and access to FP from electronic media). The study used a binary logistics regression in the final test.

Results: The study shows that the average early marriage among adolescent girls in Indonesia's rural areas was 11.9%. Teenage girls in elementary school were 448.926 times more likely than college girls to experience early marriage (AOR 448.926; 95% CI 36.384-5539.050). Meanwhile, adolescent girls in junior high school were 146.171 times more likely to experience early marriage than college girls (AOR 146.171; 95% CI 13.140-1625.997). Moreover, adolescent girls in senior high school were 21.355 times more likely than those in college to perform an early marriage (AOR 21.355; 95% CI 2.017-226.067).

Conclusions: The study concluded that education level had a role in early marriage in Indonesia's rural areas. The higher the education, the lower the probability of experiencing early marriage.