Tobacco consumption’s impact on Indonesian children’s continued education (analysis susenas 2016)

One lagging factor in Indonesia’s human development is relatively low educational achievement compared to other countries. According to Indonesian Badan Pusat Statistik data in 2017, the average length of schooling for the population aged 15 years and above is 8.1 years, the equivalent of grade 2 of junior high school. Therefore, this study’s purpose was to determine the effect of cigarette consumption expenditure on children’s continued education. Data comes from the Indonesian National Socioeconomic Survey of 2016. The unit of analysis is households with heads aged 30 years or older, who have school-aged children (7-18 years). Results showed that cigarette expenditure significantly affected continuation of children’s education, even after controlling for age, gender, education, employment status of household head, residence area, and household poverty status. The greater the proportion of cigarette expenditure, the greater the probability of dropping out.