As in many other parts of the world, the rate of teenage childbearing outside of marriage is high in Kenya and on the rise. At the same time, adolescent girls are more likely to drop out of school prematurely than boys and are less likely to do well on the primarily school-leaving exams. While female attrition from school and premarital teen pregnancy are often linked in public discourse under the umbrella of """"""""school-girl pregnancy,"""""""" there has been little research, in contrast to the United States, that establishes the nature and strength of the association or its underlying determinants. Furthermore there has been no attention, either in Kenya or elsewhere, to the role of the school environment in affecting adolescent behavior despite the fact that school is a critical socializing institution, particularly in settings where mass education is a recent phenomenon. Using data on approximately 800 adolescents aged 12-19 and their parents in combination with data collected from 36 primarily schools in the same communities, this project is designed to fill this research gap. The focus of the project will be on the quality of primary schools not only because the majority of school-going adolescents are in primarily school but also because performance in primary school is crucial in determining the chances of further education. Specific objectives are to examine whether better school quality -- defined in terms of practices that enhance gender equity and develop cognitive competencies -- leads to (1) delayed sexual initiation, (2) reduced incidence of sexual harassment and forced sex, (3) greater knowledge of reproduction and reproductive health, (4) reduced incidence of premarital pregnancy and birth, (5) increased use of contraceptives, (6) reduced incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, (7) more regular school attendance, (8) more continuous enrollment, (9) more years of schooling, (10) better exam results, and (11) greater likelihood of secondary school attendance. In addition the impact of the quality of schools on the links between educational and reproductive outcomes will be investigated. This is the first time that such a comprehensive appraisal of schools -- involving observational assessment of classes and the larger school environment as well as structured interviews with students, teachers and principals -- has been implemented. In addition, this is the first time, for a developing country population, that full sexual and reproductive histories have been collected in combination with full educational histories enabling linkage of the timing of pregnancy and school dropout.
| Hewett, P C; Mensch, B S; Erulkar, A S (2004) Consistency in the reporting of sexual behaviour by adolescent girls in Kenya: a comparison of interviewing methods. Sex Transm Infect 80 Suppl 2:ii43-8 |
| Mensch, Barbara S; Hewett, Paul C; Erulkar, Annabel S (2003) The reporting of sensitive behavior by adolescents: a methodological experiment in Kenya. Demography 40:247-68 |
