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School Socioeconomic Composition and Adolescent Sexual Initiation in Malawi
Author(s) -
Kim Jinho
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
studies in family planning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.529
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1728-4465
pISSN - 0039-3665
DOI - 10.1111/j.1728-4465.2015.00029.x
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , demography , odds , psychology , developmental psychology , ethnic composition , logistic regression , longitudinal study , multinomial logistic regression , population , medicine , sociology , pathology , machine learning , computer science
Numerous studies have documented the determinants of sexual behavior among adolescents in less‐developed countries, yet relatively little is known about the influence of social contexts such as school and neighborhood. Using two waves of data from a school‐based longitudinal survey conducted in Malawi from 2011–13, this study advances our understanding of the relationship between school‐level socioeconomic contexts and adolescents’ sexual activity. The results from two‐level multinomial logistic regression models suggest that high socioeconomic composition of the student body in school decreases the odds of initiation of sexual activity, independent of other important features of schools and individual‐level characteristics. This study also finds that the association between school socioeconomic composition and sexual activity is statistically significant among male adolescents but not female adolescents, suggesting that schools’ socioeconomic contexts may be more relevant to male adolescents’ initiation of sexual activity.