Characteristics of Child Marriage in West Java Province, 2018 (Using the Generalized Linear Model with Empirical Bayes)

Abstract

Child marriage (married under 18 years) is a form of violation of children's fundamental rights because it creates barriers to education access, maternal and child health, good parenting, the potential for domestic violence, and intergenerational poverty impact. The urgency of child marriage indicator is monitored globally in the hand 5.3.1 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to decrease Indonesia to 6.94 percent by 2030, while the Indonesian National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) is 8.74 percent in 2024. As stated by Statistics Indonesia, the percentage of child marriages in West Java Province in 2018 was around 13.26 percent, with the highest child marriage cases reaching 273,300 child marriages, becoming the urgency of choosing a research location. The 2018 research data year considers the primary data for the ratification of Law number 16 of 2019, an amendment to Law number 1 of 1974 concerning marriage, increasing the minimum age of marriage for men and women to 19 years. The research methodology is the Generalized Linear Mixed Model (with district/city groups as a random effect) using the empirical Bayes method and the 2018 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) in West Java Province. The results of this study inform all predictor variables, namely education, economic status, area of residence, migrant status, and internet access which are modelled, have a significant influence on child marriage as the response variable and recommends that the most critical effect to decline child marriage is the education factor (minimum senior high school/equivalent).