Child Marriage Prevention: An Integrative Review of Epidemiology, Policy Responses, and Behavioral Theory

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Child marriage; Early marriage; Indonesia; Health Belief Model; Theory of Planned Behavior; Adolescent behavior

Abstract

Child marriage remains a global public health concern with substantial implications for physical, psychological, and socioeconomic well-being. Although global prevalence has declined, it remains persistently high in several regions, including Indonesia, where sociocultural norms and unregistered marriages continue to perpetuate the practice. This review synthesizes epidemiological evidence, policy developments, and behavioral theory-based interventions from peer-reviewed articles and international reports published between 2021–2025. Systematic searches were conducted through Scopus, PubMed, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Google Scholar using defined keywords. Forty-one eligible publications were thematically analyzed across four domains: prevalence, determinants, consequences, and prevention strategies. Findings reveal that prevalence ranges from 1.8% to 90.85%, influenced primarily by socioeconomic disparities, geographic differences, and entrenched cultural norms. Key determinants include low education, poverty, gender inequality, and weak legal enforcement. Consequences encompass reproductive health risks, mental health problems, educational disruption, and reduced household resilience. Evidence demonstrates that interventions grounded in the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) effectively improve adolescents’ perceived susceptibility, self-efficacy, subjective norms, and intention to delay marriage. Integrated prevention strategies combining legal reform, educational access, economic empowerment, and behavioral theory-based approaches are essential for reducing child marriage rates.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nining Sulistyawati
AU  - Suminah Suminah
AU  - Ika Sumiyarsi
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/06
TI  - Child Marriage Prevention: An Integrative Review of Epidemiology, Policy Responses, and Behavioral Theory
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Multidisciplinary Studies 2025 (ICOMSI 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 277
EP  - 283
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-571-3_23
ID  - Sulistyawati2026
ER  -