Education Effects on Adolescent Childbearing in South Africa: Community Norms on Individual Behavior

Heather J. Branton, University of Michigan

The goal of this paper was to determine the effects of community norms regarding education and teen childbearing on individual teen childbearing decisions among South African adolescent girls. Primary school completion has increased steadily among African women-20% among 60 year-olds rose to 82% among 20 year-olds in 1996. Teen childbearing remains high - one fourth of African 19 year-olds haveat least had one birth. Little research has considered group normative influences on teen childbearing in the South African context. Using data on African adolescent girls from the 1996 South African Census (n=279,796), we test whether community levels of teen childbearing and educational attainment among adults are associated with individual teen childbearing. We expected individual teen childbearing to be directly related to community levels of teen childbearing and inversely related to community education. Conflicts between education and childbearing have important policy implications for reducing teen childbearing rates in South Africa.