Fadhil Nadhif
Muharam

I study the impacts of raising the age of sexual consent, a legal framework designed to safeguard children from the risks associated with early sexual activity and exploitation. Using data from 20 Sub-Saharan African countries and an event study design, I find that increasing the age of consent significantly reduces sexual activity, pregnancy, and marriage among girls under the legal threshold, with effects persisting beyond the age of consent. These reductions are driven by behavioral adaptations, including temporary increases in contraceptive use, followed by sustained declines in sexual activity and a decrease in out-of-wedlock pregnancies linked to reductions in underage marriage. For boys, the reform leads to a reduction in sexual activity, but the effect is not persistent as they age. Notably, the law does not affect the rates of child sexual abuse, likely due to imperfect enforcement. I argue that the gendered differences in the persistence of effects, along with heterogeneous responses to the laws, point to the role of legislation in reinforcing social norms surrounding children's sexuality.

We study how childhood exposure to state television reshaped family formation in rural Indonesia. We exploit the staggered expansion of TVRI, Indonesia’s national broadcaster under the New Order, and predict village-level signal strength from transmitter characteristics and terrain using the Irregular Terrain Model. Childhood exposure produces a durable shift away from early and universal marriage: exposed women and men are less likely ever to marry, while women marry later and are less likely to marry before age 18. These effects are concentrated among cohorts exposed in childhood, grow with earlier exposure, and are absent among cohorts first reached as adults. We interpret the results as evidence that television broadened views of education and adulthood, making later marriage more attractive. The labor market shift to the modern sector provides additional support. Consistent with this interpretation, exposure increases high-school completion, particularly among women. The marriage effects are strongest in bride-price communities, where transfers at marriage may make delaying marriage and pursuing education more compatible with household incentives. The findings show that state media can durably reshape family formation by interacting with institutions that condition the costs and benefits of delaying marriage.

This study explores the impact of Islamic institutions on female marriage market outcomes in Indonesia, using the natural experiment created by the 1960 Basic Agrarian Law. The law's attempt to expropriate land, with exemptions for Islamic charitable trusts (waqf), led to an increase in waqf resources, strengthening grassroots Islamic institutions. Employing a difference-in-discontinuity design, I find that stronger Islamic institutions delay the female age of marriage, increase the bride price, and promote positive assortative matching. Contrary to common beliefs that Islam hinders gender equality, these institutions appear to enhance marriage market efficiency and support women's empowerment. The findings suggest that community-led Islamic institutions could play a crucial role in delaying marriage age and improving educational outcomes for women.

Background. Parenting stress has long been proposed as a major risk factor for child maltreatment. However, there is a lack of evidence from existing studies on the temporal sequence to establish a causal relationship. This study aims to examine bidirectional temporal relationships between parenting stress and child maltreatment.

Methods. Longitudinal data from two different sources were analysed: a pre-post study of an online parenting programme conducted across six countries — the ePLH Evaluation Study, and a prospective cohort study in the United States — LONGSCAN. A cross-lagged panel model on parenting stress and child maltreatment was used in each dataset.

Results. Based on repeatedly measured data of 484 caregivers in the ePLH study across five time points (every two weeks), we found that parenting stress at an earlier time point predicted later child maltreatment (IRR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.18). In addition, the occurrence of child maltreatment was associated with higher subsequent short-term parenting stress (IRR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.08) and thus could form a vicious circle. In the LONGSCAN analysis with 772 caregivers followed from child age 6 to 16, we also found parenting stress at an earlier time point predicted later child maltreatment (β = 0.11, 95% CI: 0.01, 0.20), but did not observe an association between child maltreatment and subsequent long-term parenting stress.

Limitations. Potential information bias on the measurements.

Conclusions. This study provides evidence for a bidirectional temporal relationship between parenting stress and child maltreatment, which should be considered in parenting intervention programmes.