Monica Magadi

Gender-role attitudes and reproductive health communication among female adolescents in South Nyanza Kenya.

In this paper, we use data from three districts of Nyanza Province in Kenya to examine gender-role attitudes and reproductive health communication among adolescent females aged 12-19 years. We test for differences in gender-role attitudes between younger (12-15) and older (16-19) adolescents. We explore the possible association between educational attainment and gender-role attitudes by estimating a random effects model. We also examine the association between gender-role attitudes and reproductive health communication via an unordered multinomial logit model. The results show that adolescent females in this setting hold conservative views on decision making within the home and at the same time portray less conservative views concerning marriage and reproductive behaviour. We also find some differences by age regarding gender-role attitudes and reproductive health communication. Our findings further indicate that educational attainment is significantly associated with gender-role attitudes, which in turn are significantly associated with reproductive health communication.

Household HIV/AIDS status and sexual debut among adolescents in Kenya.

Adolescents in households affected by HIV/AIDS may be at an increased risk of poorer reproductive health than other adolescents due to the impoverishing effects of AIDS in households or lack of parental guidance. In this paper, we examine the effect of parents’ HIV status on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, focusing on early sexual debut among adolescents in Kenya. The analysis places particular emphasis on comparisons of the relative disadvantage of different groups of adolescents aged 15-17 years, with particular reference to those living in households where an adult is infected with HIV. The data come from the 2003 and 2008 Kenya Demographic and Health Surveys (KDHS). The results suggest increased vulnerability among adolescent boys and girls living in households where an adult is infected with HIV, especially when other household factors are controlled for. On average, adolescent boys and girls living in households where at least one adult is infected with HIV have about 50% higher odds of having initiated sexual activity compared to their counterparts of similar age and gender in households where no adult is HIV positive. The odds are more than 60% higher when household characteristics and circumstances relating to wealth, household head and living arrangements are controlled for. Further analysis reveals that the observed vulnerability among adolescents living in households with HIV infected adults is partly explained by background factors relating to region of residence and ethnicity and to a lesser extent by school non-attendance and mass media exposure.