Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Premarital Sex And School Dropout In Kenya: Can Schools Make A Difference?, Barbara Mensch, Wesley H. Clark, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Annabel Erulkar

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Although an overall decline has occurred in adolescent fertility in Kenya, the proportion of births to teenagers that takes place prior to marriage is rising. At the same time that premarital sex and childbearing have increased, educational participation has expanded considerably, especially for girls. Using data from nearly 600 adolescents aged 12-19 in combination with data collected from 33 primary schools that the adolescents attended, this paper explores whether certain aspects of the school environment affect the likelihood of early and unprotected sex among adolescent girls and boys in three districts of Kenya. Because of the concern with “schoolgirl pregnancy” …