Friday, July 15 2022, the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia (UI) held an open doctoral promotion session on behalf of Tati Sumiati from the Doctoral Program in Public Health Sciences. The session was chaired by Prof. dr. Asri C. Adisasmita, M.P.H., M.Phill., Ph.D. Also present Prof. Dr. dr. Sabarinah, M.Sc., as promoter, dr. Agustin Kusumayati, M.Sc., Ph.D., as the co-promoter, and Dr. Pribudiarta Nur Sitepu, M.M .; Dr. Wendy Hartanto, M.A .; Dr. Yekti Widodo, S.P., M.Kes., and Dr. dr. Rita Damayanti, MSPH., as the test team. Tati defended her dissertation, “Effects of Teenage Pregnancy on Child-Parenting in Indonesia”.
Tati’s dissertation raises issues related to the high maternal and infant mortality rate in Indonesia. One of the contributing factors to the high mortality rate is pregnancy at a young age. Based on the 2019 National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas), it is known that 46.1% of Indonesian women experience their first pregnancy before the age of 20. Pregnancy at a young age becomes risky because pregnant teenagers generally experience biological, socio-economic and psychological unpreparedness.
In improving the achievement of optimal child development, comprehensive nursing care is needed. Comprehensive parenting care is the need to support all components of childcare (health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive care, and early learning opportunities). The Government of Indonesia has committed to supporting parenting care through the Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 60 of 2013 concerning Holistic Integrative Early Childhood Development (PAUD-HI). However, the program is still being implemented partially. Tati’s dissertation succeeded in identifying parenting care classes and examining the effects of teenage pregnancy on parenting so that it can strengthen parenting care programs in Indonesia.
This research applies secondary data analysis, with the data source being integration data from the March 2018 National Susenas and 2018 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas). The study’s results found that children born to mothers younger than 20 years of age require more comprehensive parenting care than children conceived by mothers aged 20 years and over. Children conceived by mothers aged less than 20 years are also proven to have health and nutrition components as basic needs that are not met. In addition, this study also found that several factors, such as the age of the teenage partner, low education, level of welfare, and living in a rural area, had a relationship with the incidence of teenage pregnancy. This study has limitations, namely measurement bias and selection bias, so further research is expected on this topic.
Given how important support is for parenting care by mothers, the researchers conveyed several recommendations that could be given, namely: Adolescent mothers need guidance on all components of parenting care. The issue of parenting care is cross-sectoral and cross-sectoral, so program coordination across Regional Work Units (SKPD) is very important to improve health, nutritional adequacy, and early learning opportunities according to the needs of each class.
Based on the results of her dissertation, Tati successfully graduated and was declared a Doctor in Public Health. Tati is the 14th PhD graduate in Public Health Sciences (IKM) in 2022, the 268th PhD graduate in IKM, and the 346th PhD graduate in FPH. (WR)
