Sexual initiation and premarital childbearing in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper uses data from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 1986 and 1989 in Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Togo, and Zimbabwe to test the validity of these hypotheses. Issues covered include the timing of first sexual intercourse, social norms regarding premarital sexual experience, the extent of premarital childbearing, and the reasons for childbearing provided by the adolescent mothers themselves. The study found only scattered support for the initial hypotheses and traces the increasing prevalence of childbearing before marriage not to earlier sexual initiation but to later marriage. The study also found that children born to unwed adolescents are severely disadvantaged, since their mothers tend to be poor, illiterate, and in poor health; the declining influence of the extended family is another strike against them. Nonetheless, for many young women premarital childbearing may be a rational decision aimed at achieving the social status of motherhood. A further finding is that adolescent contraceptive use remains low, indicating the importance of education on the subject among sexually active adolescents.