Abstract

As a country with the fourth largest population in the world, the high number of child marriages remains a major concern in Indonesia. The country is positioned in the top 10 highest child marriage rates in the world and the second highest in Southeast Asia. The high rate of early marriage in Indonesia aligns with the low educational achievement among children. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effect of early marriage on children’s educational achievement as measured by their cognitive abilities. Using the fifth round of the Indonesia Family Life Survey dataset in 2014, this study employs ordinary least squares with clustered standard errors at the household level in multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable is child cognition as measured by the percentage of correct answers achieved by a sample of 4542 children aged 7 to 14 years on the Raven test, while the main independent variables are the parents’ age of marriage. The result suggests that the age of marriage of mothers had a positive and significant effect on their children’s educational achievement. This finding implies that children born to mothers who married earlier tend to have lower cognitive abilities. However, this result is statistically detectable for daughters only.

摘要

作为世界第四大人口大国，童婚率高仍然是印度尼西亚的一个主要问题。该国的童婚率位居全球前 10 位，在东南亚位居第二。印度尼西亚的高早婚率与儿童的低教育成就相吻合。因此，本研究旨在分析早婚对通过认知能力衡量的儿童教育成就的影响。本研究使用 2014 年第五轮印度尼西亚家庭生活调查数据集，在多元回归分析中采用家庭层面的普通最小二乘法和聚类标准误差。因变量是儿童认知，以 4542 名 7 至 14 岁儿童样本在 Raven 测试中获得的正确答案百分比来衡量，而主要自变量是父母的结婚年龄。结果表明，母亲的结婚年龄对其子女的教育成就有积极且显着的影响。这一发现意味着早婚母亲所生的孩子往往认知能力较低。然而，这一结果仅对女儿有统计学意义。这一发现意味着早婚母亲所生的孩子往往认知能力较低。然而，这一结果仅对女儿有统计学意义。这一发现意味着早婚母亲所生的孩子往往认知能力较低。然而，这一结果仅对女儿有统计学意义。