The Dynamics of Underage Marriage: An Empirical Socio-Legal Study at the Religious Affairs Office of Simo, Boyolali, Indonesia

Underage marriage remains a persistent socio-legal challenge in Indonesia despite the establishment of nineteen as the statutory minimum marriage age. This study examines the implementation of underage marriage at the Religious Affairs Office (KUA) of Simo, Boyolali, analyses its driving factors and consequences, and evaluates the institutional role of the KUA in addressing the practice. Employing a normative-empirical socio-legal approach, the study integrates statutory analysis with field evidence obtained through semi-structured interviews, observation, and institutional documentation. The findings demonstrate that underage marriage occurs through two principal pathways: court-authorised marriage dispensation followed by formal registration and religious marriage conducted prior to, or outside, the formal registration process. The practice is driven by the interaction of economic hardship, educational discontinuity, cultural expectations, premarital relationships and pregnancy, partial religious understandings, and individual preference. Its consequences include disrupted education, economic insecurity, psychological immaturity, reproductive-health vulnerability, and marital instability. Although the KUA effectively performs legal gatekeeping through age verification, registration control, premarital guidance, and institutional coordination, its preventive capacity remains limited where social practices precede or bypass formal legal procedures. These findings imply that underage-marriage prevention requires an integrated intervention involving legal institutions, schools, health services, village authorities, religious leaders, and families. The study contributes original empirical evidence by locating the regulatory-practice gap at the local institutional level and by demonstrating the relevance of integrating socio-legal analysis with a maqasid al-shariah-oriented child-protection framework.