EFFECTS OF EARLY MARRIAGE AMONG MUSLIMS IN TAWI-TAWI, PHILIPPINES: AN ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT ON ITS CORE UNIT

Tawi-Tawi is the cradle of Islamic civilization in the Philippines. This study looked at marriage practices in the province as one of the important pillars of civilization. Specifically, it aimed at early marriage practices and its effect on their socio-economic and religious lives as Mulims. Using descriptive and inferential statistical analyses collected from among 195 research participants, this study found that the spiritual obligations of the participants were not significantly affected by the fact that they married early but the same cannot be concluded in the case of their socio-economic lives. One-sample T-Test result revealed that couples who married early earned significantly lower than the poverty threshold of the province. Regression analysis results revealed that only independent variable husband Islamic educational attainment was found to have a positive and statistically significant influence on the likelihood that they will finish their studies. This study concludes that as marriage is considered as the building block that makes or breaks civilizations, early marriage is shaking its structural integrity.