Role of gender in Kenyan Adolescents' Childbearing decision

Background: About half of Kenyan population is under 24 years of age, a distribution that makes it important to examine their desires for another child and try to understand factors that influence their fertility patterns.

Objective: To examine whether gender of the child that has died and other key covariates are associated with fertility desires of Kenyan youths.

Method: We used data from the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey. The relationship between married or sexually active youths desires for another child was modeled using logistic regression, controlling for (Age, Education, rural information, contraceptive used, chance of getting HIVAIDS, wanted the last child, any abuse or violence, provinces, household head). Analyses were restricted to female respondents 15 to 24 years old (n=3,530).

Results: Married youths were more likely to consider having another child if a son had died (OR=2.724, 95% CI 1.496, 4.960) but was not significant for non-married youths. Death of a daughter was not significant for either married or non-married youth. Married youths were more likely to want another child if they have had two or more children but less likely for non-married youths. With 17% of the youth reporting some abuse or violence, they were more likely to want another child if they were married but less like if not-married. Risk of HIV did not affect sexually active youth from wanting another child.

Conclusions: This study present further evidence that married Kenyan youths could have different reproductive health needs compared to those that were just sexually active.