Adolescent childbearing in sub-Saharan Africa

Neeru Gupta and Mary Mahy
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Neeru Gupta: University of New Brunswick
Mary Mahy: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

Demographic Research, 2003, vol. 8, issue 4, 93-106

Abstract: This article examines whether increased years of schooling exercised a consistent impact on delayed childbearing in sub-Saharan Africa. Data were drawn from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in eight countries over the period 1987-1999. Multiple logistic regressions were used to assess trends and determinants in the probability of first birth during adolescence. Girls' education from about the secondary level onwards was found to be the only consistently significant covariate. No effect of community aggregate education was discernible, after controlling for urbanity and other individual-level variables. The results reinforce previous findings that improving girls' education is a key instrument for raising ages at first birth, but suggest that increases in schooling at lower levels alone bear only somewhat on the prospects for fertility decline among adolescents.

Keywords: fertility; Africa; developing countries; education; fertility determinants; adolescence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:8:y:2003:i:4

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2003.8.4

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