Preventing early marriage: Reproductive health education as the key to adolescents' future

Abstract

Early marriage is still a serious problem in Indonesia, especially in rural areas, which has a negative impact on adolescents' reproductive health, education, and social welfare. Reproductive health education is an important preventive strategy in reducing the rate of early marriage. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of reproductive health education in increasing adolescents' understanding of the risks of early marriage in Malangrejo Hamlet, Wedomartani, Sleman, Special Region of Yogyakarta. The method used is pre-experiment with a one group pretest-post-test design approach. A total of 30 adolescents aged 13–21 years became teenagers and were given pretests, education through interactive lectures and discussions, as well as post-tests. The results of the analysis showed a significant increase in comprehension scores after educational interventions (p < 0.05), especially related to the impact of early marriage on physical, mental, and social health. The implications of this study show that targeted and contextual reproductive health education can be key in shaping adolescent awareness to postpone marriage until a more mature age. In conclusion, community-based educational approaches have been shown to be effective in increasing adolescent literacy about early marriage. The recommendations of this study are the need to integrate reproductive health education into routine school programs and adolescent activities at the hamlet level, as well as the active involvement of parents and community leaders in supporting the prevention of early marriage.