Intergenerational Patterns of Child-Bearing in Early-Marriage Families in Indonesia

• In Event: Parents at the Transition to Parenthood

Abstract

Every day 39,000 children under 18 years old are getting married worldwide (United Nations Population Fund, 2014). Among South-East Asian countries, Indonesia has the second-highest prevalence of early marriage (Rumble et al., 2018) with 3,600 Indonesian girls being married in a day (UNICEF, 2014). Despite the negative outcomes, early marriages remain prevalent in many areas of Indonesia, especially in rural areas (Berliana et al., 2018). The purpose of this study was to observe the early child-bearing pathways that have been passed down through generations in early marriage families in Indonesia, specifically within the Madurese ethnic group. This study addressed the following two research questions: How do early motherhood pathways become transmitted from early married mothers to their early married daughters? What challenges do early married women experience during childbearing?
To understand the different events in early married Madurese women’s life trajectories in the context of culture, the life course perspectives were used to help interpret the marital and child-bearing stages within two generations of early married women and how values around them are socialized (Min et al., 2012). A phenomenological method (Wertz, 2011) was used to guide this study since it focuses on human experiences including activities, values, and feelings (Daly, 2007) in the different life courses. This method is suitable to capture the intergenerational stories of mothers and daughters who were married as a child about their childbearing experience.
The study was conducted in the Sumbermalang sub-district, Indonesia, where the majority of the population is Madurese and the prevalence of early marriage reaches up to 64%. Six pairs of mothers and daughters who get married under 18 years old agreed to participate in 90-minute semi-structured interviews. The age of the participants when the interviews took place ranged from 18 to 45 years old. All interviews were conducted in Indonesian and audio-recorded for analysis purposes. The transcriptions were analyzed in the original language. To analyze the data, the authors developed a coding system to draw the emerging themes.
Based on our preliminary analysis, in relation to intergenerational child-bearing challenges, we found two major themes that emerged within our participants. First, both mothers and daughters shared the same fear related to giving birth as adolescents. The main reasons for the fear were geographic location, limited access to resources, high pregnancy risk, and past trauma. Second, although most of the participants are aware of the importance of contraceptives for family planning, they have limited access to the resources because of stigmatization. Lastly, regarding childbearing pathways, both the mothers and daughters relied on their mothers or mothers-in-law to assist them during and after labor. They learn about motherhood practices and values from their mothers.
Our study offers a unique perspective on the intergenerational child-bearing experience of early marriage for Madurese women living in a specific geographic and cultural community in rural Indonesia. Results underscore the importance of paying close attention to the live trajectories that inform the cultural contexts interplay when examining child development.

Authors

• Cahya Haniva Yunizar, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  Presenting Author

• Zha Blong Xiong, University of Minnesota