Family Structure and Child Educational Attainment in the Slums of Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Research shows that children living with two biological parents outperform those raised in other family structures. A growing number of children do not live with two biological parents in sub-Saharan Africa, but few studies have examined the consequences. In this article, data from the African Population and Health Research Center collected in the slums of Nairobi are fitted to a logistic regression model to test the hypothesis that two-parent families are most favorable to schooling outcomes in Kenya. After controlling for socioeconomic variables, the effect of family structure on educational attainment of children persists. Children in two-parent households were 40% (unadjusted odds ratio [UOR] = 1.40, p = 0.01) and 16% (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 1.16, p = 0.1) more likely to be in the right age for grade compared with children in one-parent households. The study calls for strengthening single-parent households to achieve better educational outcomes for the children.