Determinants of adolescent childbearing in Kenya: evidence from KDHS 2008/09

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancy has been increasingly perceived as a problem and the International Conferences on Population and Development (lCPDs) have identified the adolescents as a distinct target group in need of comprehensive reproductive health programmes and services. This study investigates different factors largely grouped under socio-economic, cultural and demographic factors that affect fertility based on the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey data, 2008 .. The social-economic variables considered are region of residence, place of residence and education level while the cultural variables considered are; ethnicity and religion and the demographic variable considered is marital status. Conceptual framework employed herein is based on Bongaarts model and both descriptive (frequency and cross tabulation) as well as multivariate analyses are utilized. The proportion of those who begin childbearing before age twenty increases with age. While only less than 2% of adolescents aged 15 have begun childbearing, by age 19, the proportion increases to more than one third. Analysis of Kenya's regional differentials in adolescent childbearing shows that Nyanza province has the highest proportion of adolescent who have begun childbearing at 23.8% followed by Coast province at 21.4% while Central province has the least at 9.3% followed by Nairobi Province at 11.4%. This trend is also reflected in the ethnic differentials in adolescent childbearing where the Luo adolescents lead at 23.6% followed by MijikendaiSwahili/TaitaiTaveta at 20.0% while the EmbulKikuyuMeru at 6.9%. There is not much of a differential in' adolescent childbearing between urban and rural women- the proportions being 16.7% and 15.5% respectively. Muslim adolescents have the highest proportion of childbearing compared to other religions. The findings of this study with respect to education indicate that there is a declining trend in adolescent childbearing as level of education -- v nses. 19.7% of adolescents with no education have begun childbearing compared to only 9.4% of adolescent with secondary+ level of education who reported to have begun childbearing. In multivariate analysis, the effect of region of residence on adolescent childbearing in Kenya is dependent on other variables. Type of place of residence is not a significant factor in adolescent childbearing as is religious affiliation. Ethnicity which is somewhat related to region of residence, is a factor in determining adolescent childbearing. Educational attainment has been found to significantly influence adolescent childbearing supporting other studies with similar findings (UN, 1987; Ainsworth, 1994; Martin and Juarez 1995 and Mboup and Saha, 1998) as is marital status. Although the study focused on few possible determinants of adolescent childbearing in Kenya - other factors that have been shown to influence adolescent childbearing include contraceptive use, age of entry into marriage, age at first intercourse and wealth status-, the findings demonstrate the by supporting girl child education and increase age of entry into marriage would significantly reduce adolescent childbearing in Kenya.