The brain undergoes very rapid growth and development among toddler below 5 year of age. The fault in their upbringing during this period of time will cause them to undergo growth and development disorder, and parents who get married too young early have lack of knowledge of raising their young children. As a result, the latter become vulnerable during their growth and development. The objective of the research was to analyze the correlation between early marriage and teenager pregnancy to stunting in growth among toddlers. The research used descriptive analytic method with cross-sectional design. It was conducted at Bangun Rejo Village, Tanjung Morawa District, Deli Serdang regency from June to September 2019. The population consisted of 645 toddler aged between 0 and 59 months. The sample was chosen by using systematic random sampling technique. The data were gathered by using questionnaires in order to get the information about early marriage and by conducting observation in order to find out toddler stunting. The result of univariate analysis showed that 87 (82.1%) infants had normal growth. The result of bivariate analysis, using chi-square test, showed that there was correlation between early marriage and toddler stunting, teenager pregnancy (p=0.000) and marriage age (p=0.001). The conclusion of the research was that there was correlation between early marriage and teenager pregnancy to stunting in toddler. The study showed that toddlers in case of parent with early marriage was more vulnerable to growth and development disorder. It is recommended that health service of care for adolescents and integrated monitoring of toddler be established in order to decrease the risk of incidence of early marriage and toddler stunting.
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.