Contextual Determinants of Wanted Fertility among Adolescents in Selected Countries in Ssa

Olufemi Adetutu , Obafemi Awolowo University

Despite fertility decline in the world, the rate of decline in sub-Saharan Africa has stalled stalled across countries in the region with varied trajectories. While countries in Southern African and some Island countries have achieved remarkable fertility decline, fertility remained stalled in West and Central African countries such as Nigeria, DR Congo, Niger and Mali. Meanwhile, adolescents' fertility contribute a larger proportion of fertility increase than the older women. There is a gap in evidence on how environmental and societal pressures motivate adolescents to want more children. This means studies that focus on how contextual or environmental pressure at individual, household and community influence adolescents to want more children have been largely overlooked. This is needed because little evidence showed environmental pressure influences adolescents to want children and those who have had to want more in an economically disadvantaged areas. Most studies have focused on unwanted fertility of adolescents in a single country. No known studies have considered a multicountry approach. Hence, this study considers individual, household and community factors that influence wanted fertility among adolescents in Nigeria, DR Congo, Mali and Niger using the latest DHS within West and Central African blocs.A multilevel binary logistic regression was used for the analysis.Results showed uneducated, polygamous setting, pressure of single parent, female headed households, family size, community education, ethnic diversity, community poverty level, region and place of residence influenced wantedness of fertility among adolescents at varied levels across the selected countries.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session P1. Poster Session Fertility, Family and the Life Course