FERTILITY, ETHNICITY, AND EDUCATION IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

In the mid-1950s, a massive survey in the present Democratic Republic of the Congo revealed sharp ethnic fertility differentials. With the vast majority of women never having been to school, women’s education was not, then, pertinent to fertility. Over the succeeding decades, women increasingly went to school, especially in Kinshasa. This led to lower fertility in the capital, particularly for women with secondary schooling. At the same time, fertility differences by ethnic group diminished in the city. This paper examines fertility differences by education and by ethnicity in the entire country, distinguishing Kinshasa, other urban places, and rural areas. We find that, over all, the increased importance for fertility of education and reduced importance of ethnicity witnessed in Kinshasa is also apparent for the entire country. Regarding the sources of ethnic differences in fertility, the findings support the social characteristics hypothesis in cosmopolitan Kinshasa and the cultural hypothesis elsewhere.

Parental factors and sexual risk-taking among young people in C&#244te d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire is the country worst affected by the HIV epidemic in West Africa, and young people in this country are a particularly vulnerable group. This study examined the relation between parental factors and sexual risk-taking among young people using logistic regression and survival analysis methods. Three parental factors (living in the same household as the father during childhood, perceived parental disapproval of early and premarital pregnancy, and parent-child communication about sexual abstinence) were positively associated with primary sexual abstinence (defined as yet to experience sexual debut), secondary sexual abstinence (defined as sexual abstinence subsequent to sexual debut) and reduced number of sex partners. The findings suggest that parental monitoring and control are important predictors of youth sexual behaviours and underscore the need to target parents and guardians in efforts to promote responsible sexual behaviours among adolescents. It is important to promote parent-child communication about sexual issues and empower parents and guardians to communicate effectively with their children and wards about sexual issues. RÉSUMÉ La Côte-d'lvoire est le pays le plus atteint par l'épidémie du VIH en Afrique de l'ouest et les jeunes gens de ce pays constituent un groupe surtout vulnérable. Cette étude a examiné le rapport entre les facteurs parentaux et la prise de risque sexuel chez les jeunes gens à l'aide de la regression logistique et la méthode de l'analyse de survie. Trois facteurs parentaux (le fait d'habiter dans la mème maison que le père pendant l'enfance, la désapprobation parentale perçue de la grossesse précoce et la grossesse prémaritale et la communication parent–enfant concernant l'abstinence sexuelle primaire (définie comme n'ayant pas encore eu l'expérience sexuelle), l'abstinence sexuelle secondarie (définie comme une abstinence sexuelle postérieure à l'expérience sexuelle initiale) et le nombre réduit de partenaires sexuels. Les résultats démontrent que la surveillance et l'autorité des parents sont des facteurs importants qui soulignent le besoin de viser les parents et les tuteurs dans les tentatives de promouvoir des comportements sexuels responsables chez les adolescents. Il est important de promouvoir la communication parent-enfant par rapport aux questions sexuelles et de capabiliser les parents et les tuteurs afin qu'ils puissent communiquer de manière effetive avec leurs enfants et leurs pupilles quant aux questions sexuelles. Afr J Reprod Health Vol.9 (1) 2005: 49–6