ABSTRACT

Yodi, Septra. 2020. The Meaning of Early-age Marriage at Nagari Tapan, Basa Ampek Balai Tapan,
Pesisir Selatan, West Sumatera. Thesis, Geography Department of Graduate Program
Universitas Negeri Malang, Advisor: (I) ……. (II)….

Keywords: Meaning of Early-age Marriage, Parents

Nagari Tapan is recorded to have the highest rate of early-age marriage couples compared to others
Nagari for instance Nagari Batang Arah Tapan with 15 couples, Nagari Pasar Tapan with 18 couples,
ampan tulak Tapan with 20 couples, Nagari Koto Anau with 8 couples, Dusun Baru Tapan with 11
couples, Nagari Tanung Pondok Tapan with 7 couples, Nagari Batang Betung Tapan with 13 couples,
Nagari Riak Danau Tapan with 15 couples, and Nagari Bukit Buai Tapan with 17 couples. Nagari
Tapan itself hold the record with 21 couples doing early-age marriage. Referring to the Indonesian
Marriage Law no 1 year of 1997 clearly states that the marriage is allowed if the male is above 19
years old while the female is above 16 years old. Counting the total amount of couples doing early-
age marriage, the Marriage Law seems not too applicable in these particular area.

The objective of this research was to investigate the meaning of early-age marriage conducted by
people in Nagari Tapan. The Focus of this research were factors affecting the early-age marriage and
how the parents comprehensively understand the meaning of early-age marriage at Nagari Tapan,
Basa Ampek Balai Tapan, Pesisir Selatan, West Sumatera. A geographical approach was used to
examine the location, nature, and socio-culture of the people. Qualitative research was employed by
altering propositional phenomenology developed by Alfred Schutz to discover the ‘because motives’
and ‘in order to motives’ in doing early-age marriage to make a meaning. The data were analyzed
using interactive analysis model by Miles and Huberman through three sequences; data reduction,
data display, and data verification.

The results showed that the meaning of early-age marriage: firstly, factors affecting early-age
marriage at Nagari Tapan were free sex in which the female were pregnant, tacobak (busting) the
unmarried couple who were found having love in a home without legal permission of the parents at
night of daylight, and low-income factor. Secondly, the meaning of early-age marriage at Nagari
Tapan were as an effort to prevent the family of the couple being ashamed, an effort to save the
female from pre-marriage pregnancy or the couples being cast away from the Nagari , and as an
effort to help the family financial situation. Early-age marriage can help the low-income family to
have a more prosperous financial situation, especially if their daughter is going to marry a well-
established man with great salary.

The phenomena of early-age marriage has turned out to be a social problem among the society.
Various efforts are needed to be done by any authorities, the government, and the society itself. A
preventive action to overcome the problem is by conduction socialization about the negative impact
of early-age marriage. Several things that the researcher may suggest relate to this phenomena:
educating the Ninik Mamak at all Nagari to stop conducting a wedding for couples who are not
eligible to be married yet as a punishment and lesson-learned for the society, restructuring the
society to return to the mosque as an essential way of implementing religious values so the kids may
have more interaction with religious and faithful people