Education and desired family size: A study of Kenyan Youth

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of individual and family background factors in the formation of family size orientations of youth. It placed a special focus on the effects of schooling and other forms of learning on family size desires of adolescents. It was postulated that, parental education and number of siblings influenced adolescent's family size desires both directly and through the intervening variables, i.e., respondents' education, modern-traditional orientations and media exposure. Data from a survey of young people conducted in Kenya between 1979 and 1980 were utilized in explaining family size desires among the youth. The methods of analysis applied included: factor, regression and path techniques. A path model developed to estimate the extent to which these factors were instrumental in the formation of family size desires among youth revealed that, family background factors had no substantial direct influences on family size desires of youth, but rather impacted indirectly through the adolescents' education, modern traditional orientations and mass media exposure. Adolescents' age and education had the strongest inverse relationship with desired family size, i.e., both the older youth and the more educated desired a smaller family than the others. After controlling for gender, however, the strong negative influence of age and education on desired family size held for females only. Both the youth with modern orientations and with high media exposure desired a small family, although this observation was significant for youth with secondary education. To further understand the effects of schooling and other forms of learning on family size desires of youth, there is need to develop population and other related programs in both in-school and out of school educational institutions. In order to improve on this study future investigations may benefit by inclusion of additional variables. For example, youths' perceptions on the value of children, age at marriage, educational and career aspirations, and their knowledge about population and other related matters.