IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v8y2018i3p2158244018803132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Does It Mean to Be Single in Indonesia? Religiosity, Social Stigma, and Marital Status Among Never-Married Indonesian Adults

Author

Listed:
  • Karel Karsten Himawan
  • Matthew Bambling
  • Sisira Edirippulige

Abstract

The increasing number of never-married individuals has become a global phenomenon. Like many Asian countries, the sociocultural standard in Indonesia defines being married as a desirable social achievement, which leaves single adults vulnerable to derogation. Religiosity is also highly valued in Indonesian society, to the extent that those who show religious attributes tend to be positively regarded. This study aims to describe how Indonesian society defines the status and to explore the role of religiosity in overcoming its negative stigma. This is a narrative literature review study of relevant published literature from the last two decades. Our literature analysis showed that religiosity may mitigate the effect of being undervalued both by increasing the capacity to cope and by providing socially valued attributes that are regarded positively by Indonesian society. However, there is a risk that although singles can use religiosity as a primary coping mechanism to manage their social difficulties, society as a whole does not undergo genuine cultural shifts toward accepting a later age for marriage or singlehood as life choices. Although future studies are needed to comprehensively address the issues, the social acts of reducing stigma toward Indonesian singles are urgently needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Karel Karsten Himawan & Matthew Bambling & Sisira Edirippulige, 2018. "What Does It Mean to Be Single in Indonesia? Religiosity, Social Stigma, and Marital Status Among Never-Married Indonesian Adults," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(3), pages 21582440188, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:2158244018803132
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244018803132
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244018803132
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244018803132?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stutzer, Alois & Frey, Bruno S., 2006. "Does marriage make people happy, or do happy people get married?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 326-347, April.
    2. Malcolm, Michael & Naufal, George S, 2014. "Are Pornography and Marriage Substitutes for Young Men?," IZA Discussion Papers 8679, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Gavin W. Jones, 2007. "Delayed Marriage and Very Low Fertility in Pacific Asia," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 33(3), pages 453-478, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elsa GAUTRAIN & Hugues CHAMPEAUX & Karine MARAZYAN, 2024. "Men's premarital migration and marriage payments: Evidence from Indonesia," FSES Working Papers 534, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew E. Clark, 2018. "Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(2), pages 245-269, June.
    2. Guven, Cahit & Senik, Claudia & Stichnoth, Holger, 2012. "You can’t be happier than your wife. Happiness gaps and divorce," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 110-130.
    3. Augusto Mendoza Calderón, 2017. "El Efecto del Empleo sobre la Violencia Doméstica: Evidencia para las Mujeres Peruanas," Working Papers 99, Peruvian Economic Association.
    4. Xavier Ramos, 2008. "Using Efficiency Analysis to Measure Individual Well-being with an Illustration for Catalonia," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 9, pages 155-175, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Tatiana Karabchuk, 2016. "The subjective well-being of women in Europe: children, work and employment protection legislation," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 15(2), pages 219-245, November.
    6. Bruno S. Frey & Anthony Gullo, 2021. "Does Sports Make People Happier, or Do Happy People More Sports?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(4), pages 432-458, May.
    7. Violeta Misheva, 2016. "What Determines Emotional Well-Being? The Role of Adverse Experiences: Evidence Using Twin Data," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 1921-1937, October.
    8. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Santiago Budría, 2014. "Deprivation and Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Panel Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(4), pages 655-682, December.
    9. Laura Langner, 2022. "Desperate Housewives and Happy Working Mothers: Are Parent-Couples with Equal Income More Satisfied throughout Parenthood? A Dyadic Longitudinal Study," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(1), pages 80-100, February.
    10. Sophie Cetre & Andrew E. Clark & Claudia Senik, 2016. "Happy People Have Children: Choice and Self-Selection into Parenthood," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 32(3), pages 445-473, August.
    11. Averett, Susan L. & Sikora, Asia & Argys, Laura M., 2008. "For better or worse: Relationship status and body mass index," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 330-349, December.
    12. Guzi, Martin & de Pedraza, Pablo, 2013. "A Web Survey Analysis of the Subjective Well-being of Spanish Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 7618, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew E. Clark, 2021. "Children, unhappiness and family finances," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 625-653, April.
    14. Ruut Veenhoven, 2011. "World Database of Happiness Example of a focused ‘Findings Archive’," RatSWD Working Papers 169, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    15. Andrew E. Clark, 2016. "Adaptation and the Easterlin Paradox," Creative Economy, in: Toshiaki Tachibanaki (ed.), Advances in Happiness Research, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 75-94, Springer.
    16. Andrew E. Clark & Ed Diener & Yannis Georgellis & Richard E. Lucas, 2008. "Lags And Leads in Life Satisfaction: a Test of the Baseline Hypothesis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(529), pages 222-243, June.
    17. Premchand Dommaraju & Shawn Wong, 2023. "Transition to first marriage in Thailand: cohort and educational changes," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 1-16, March.
    18. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2009. "Should National Happiness be Maximized?," Chapters, in: Amitava Krishna Dutt & Benjamin Radcliff (ed.), Happiness, Economics and Politics, chapter 14, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Arnaud Dupuy & Alfred Galichon, 2014. "Personality Traits and the Marriage Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 122(6), pages 1271-1319.
    20. Leonardo Becchetti, 2010. "The Money–Happiness Relationship in Transition Countries: Evidence from Albania," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 17(1), pages 39-62, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:3:p:2158244018803132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.