Indonesia has a high rate of child marriage, and while we know this is heavily influenced by adolescent pregnancy, there is still somewhat limited research and varying information surrounding these topics. From surveys in 2015 and 2016, out of 1,078 adolescent girls who had become pregnant while they were still students, 976 were unwanted.* In fact, one in 37 adolescent girls in Indonesia experience childbirth between the ages of 15 and 19** and some data suggests that pregnancies outside of marriage are becoming more common in Indonesia.*** Meanwhile, pregnancy complications are also a leading cause of death for girls.** Yet despite all of this, there is still limited information about adolescent girls’ journeys to becoming pregnant, and beyond public condemnations of premarital sex, the issues behind and surrounding adolescent sexual activity and pregnancy are rarely discussed in public due to strong taboos and social norms. These taboos and norms also hide an even bigger issue, which we found during a 2023 study - not only are many adolescent girls getting pregnant, it’s likely that many of them are doing so due to pressure, and sometimes even rape, from their partners.
It is important to explore and share more about this topic not only for improving understanding, but as part of improving support for adolescent girls, including the norms and systems surrounding them, as well as helping them feel more capable of making decisions about their body. In our 2023 study, we conducted in-depth interviews with 79 adolescent girls in West Java and Central Sulawesi. Using timeline visuals that researchers and the participants developed together during the interviews, these adolescent girls took us through their journeys to becoming pregnant. Generally, there are six paths that lead to teenage pregnancy under two broad umbrellas: pregnancy outside marriage and pregnancy within marriage. This study in Indonesia was part of a larger study exploring the context, dynamics, and factors influencing adolescent girls' pregnancies conducted by the Burnet Institute in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Lao PDR, with Empatika supporting the Burnet Institute and UNFPA for the research in Indonesia.
Based on our interviews with adolescent girls in Indonesia, we found that there are generally six paths that lead to teenage pregnancy under two broad umbrellas: pregnancy outside marriage and pregnancy within marriage. Within marriage, the three paths we identified are: i) love marriage, ii) reputation marriage, and iii) financial marriage. Love marriages were couples who both wanted to get married early. Reputation marriages were influenced by concerns from parents who were worried that their daughters would be gossiped about while dating, or worried that their daughters would get pregnant. For example, one participant’s father told her, “rather than hearing these stories that give you tears or [are] hot on the ears… it’s best to just get married.” Another girl said to us “Actually, I wasn’t [ready to get married], but with your parents, ya, you have to be ready.” Like many other participants, this girl shared that both she and her boyfriend weren’t ready to marry and wanted to continue school, but that the gossip pushed them to marry. Meanwhile, financial marriages were couples who were pushed to marry out of economic necessity, although not many participants in our study had experienced this pathway.
Couples within these three in-marriage pathways were also heavily influenced by the norm and common expectation in Indonesia to have children soon after marriage. Many adolescent girls admitted to our researchers that they were not ready to have children at that time. However, they were unable to refuse from having sexual intercourse with their husband because they felt that it is a wife's duty to serve and comply with their husband's wishes, including to not use any contraceptives.
The three pathways outside of marriage: included: i) rape, ii) pressured sex – which involves threats and/or psychological pressure by girls’ romantic partner, and iii) consensual sex. While those who had consensual sex had become pregnant mainly due to limited access to and knowledge of contraceptives, a majority of the participants in these three pathways became pregnant due to rape or pressured sex.
For example, one participant described how when she visited her boyfriend’s boarding house, “I was given a [spiked] drink. He promised not to do the same thing [after the first time] but then it happened again.” In what was a common theme, when she didn’t want to visit her boyfriend’s place the next time, “he got mad and hit me.”
Like many girls who were forced or pressured to have sex, this participant stayed with her boyfriend after he eventually forced himself on her. This troubling finding of girls staying with their boyfriends following nonconsensual acts was influenced by a number of factors. Boyfriends often justified their actions under the remit of ‘taking responsibility,’ which meant that they would marry the girl if she got pregnant, taking advantage of the fact that girls’ primary social concern would be having a child out of wedlock. This relates to the social norm which expects girls (and women) to marry the father of their child, and in some cases it was participants’ parents who decided that they must marry the man who impregnated them, even when the pregnancy resulted from a rape. Some girls also described feeling ‘broken’ by the experience of being pressured or forced to have sex, and saw themselves as unworthy of being with other men since they had already lost their virginity. This left them to believe that, regardless of the circumstances, it was best to stay with their partner.
The pathways of adolescent girls' pregnancies captured in this study, both within and outside of marriage, show how adolescent girls believe they have limited agency in making decisions about their body and their relationships, both towards their partners and their families. When adolescents lack trusted information and guidance about sex and it is taboo to talk about sexual matters, adolescent girls are left in a difficult and more vulnerable position. When communities and social norms normalize child marriage while also keeping the issues surrounding teenage sexual activity taboo, this ends up providing opportunities for boys and men to take advantage of these norms.
As part of this study, we also engaged some of the study participants in the development of the study recommendations, to get their ideas about what can be done to help girls and young women gain better support and have better experiences. Findings from this study helped to inform the Burnet Institute, UNFPA, and the Ministry of Health in planning their programs and policies related to adolescent sexual reproductive health.
You can read the full report here, which includes suggestions from the study participants on helping prevent teenage pregnancy.
Our previous blog post discusses how we engaged girls in this study as part of helping them to feel comfortable sharing and engaging about sensitive topics in “Creative and adaptive approaches to conducting research with adolescents on taboo and sensitive topics in Indonesia”.
*Handayani, Laksmi, et.al., 2023. “Upaya Peningkatan Kesehatan Remaja Dalam Menghindari Kehamilan Diluar Nikah”, Jurnal Pengabdian Masyarakat dan Riset Pendidikan Volume 2 No 4, April-June 2024, pp 338-342.
**BPS, “Buku I Analisis Tematik Kependudukan Indonesia (Fertilitas Remaja, Kematian Maternal, Kematian Bayi, dan Penyandang Disabilitas)”, 2023.
***Harvey CM et al. 2022. ‘Premarital Conception as a Driver of Child Marriage and Early Union in Selected Countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.' The Journal of Adolescent Health,
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