Does Education Level Matter in Women's Risk of Early Marriage?: Case Study in Rural Area in Indonesia.

Several studies inform that early marriage is correlated with several situations, including socioeconomic status, cultural wisdom, religious values, education, and internet access. The study was aimed at analyzing the effect of education level on women's risk of early marriage in rural areas in Indonesia. The study used data from the 2017 Indonesian Demographic and Health Survey. There were 2,252 women aged 19-24 years in a rural area in Indonesia who was taken as a sample. The variables analyzed included early marriage, education level, wealth status, and employment status. The final stage was used as a binary logistic regression test to determine the risk factors. The result found that women who have secondary education have a risk of 0.396 times compared to women who have primary education to experience an early marriage (OR 0.396; 95% CI 0.309-0.506). Women who have a higher education have a risk of 0.091 times compared to women who have primary education to experience an early marriage (OR 0.091; 95% CI 0.059-0.140). This finding informs that the education level was a determinant of the incidence of early marriage among women in rural Indonesia. The lower the education of a woman in a rural area, the higher the risk of experiencing an early marriage. It could be concluded that a low level of education is a risk factor for women's early marriage in rural areas in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]