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ERIC Number: ED382893
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1995
Pages: 88
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: ISBN-0-8213-3019-5
ISSN: ISSN-0253-4517
EISSN: N/A
The Impact of Female Schooling on Fertility and Contraceptive Use: A Study of Fourteen Sub-Saharan Countries. Living Standards Measurement Study Working Paper No. 110.
Ainsworth, Martha; And Others
This paper examines the relationship between female schooling and two behaviors--cumulative fertility and contraceptive use--in 14 Sub-Saharan African countries where Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have been conducted since the mid-1980s. Using multivariate regression analysis, the paper compares the effect of schooling across countries, in urban and rural areas, and across different cohorts of women. The results show a negative correlation between female schooling and fertility in virtually all of the countries. Female primary schooling has a negative relation with fertility in about half of the countries and no relation in the other half. Secondary schooling is universally associated with lower fertility, and the strength of the effect increases with the years of schooling. Among ever-married women, husband's schooling has no significant relation with fertility in one-third of the countries and, when both women's and men's schooling matter, women's schooling exerts a much larger negative effect on fertility than men's schooling. Even low levels of female schooling are found to have a positive relationship with contraceptive use, but higher levels of schooling have a greater effort. Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe were found to have the highest levels of female schooling, lowest child mortality rates and the most vigorous family planning programs. (JE)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: World Bank, Washington, DC.
Identifiers - Location: Botswana; Kenya; Zimbabwe
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A