Effects of the Number and Age of Siblings on Educational Transitions in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

Studies examining the link between number of siblings and level of education attained by children in Africa have produced mixed results. This study draws on Demographic and Health Survey data from 26 sub-Saharan African countries and employs a multilevel multiprocess model that controls for time-invariant unobserved mother-level characteristics. We find indications that having younger siblings increases the likelihood of entering primary school; however, once a child is enrolled, having pre-school aged siblings is negatively associated with educational progression. Having a greater number of siblings older than age 15 increases the likelihood of primary-school entry and completion but has no effect on subsequent educational transitions. Some positive effects of having a greater number of siblings who are aged 6-15 are also observed. Girls are more adversely affected by having young siblings than are boys, but they benefit more than do boys from having siblings who are older than age 15. On the whole, the effects are not very strong, however.

The Differential Mortality of Undesired Infants in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…I first identify the differential mortality of undesired children by controlling for mother fixed effects, as mothers with, for example, high fertility desires often have higher mortality for all their children. Furthermore, mortality is higher among the firstborns and very late-borns (Lloyd & Montgomery 1996) and there may be resource competition or benefits of scale in larger families, which may also depend on gender (Kravdal et al 2013). Hence, this study controls for the number of older brothers and sisters at birth and the mother's age at birth.…”

The effects of a nutrient supplementation intervention in Ghana on parents’ investments in their children

“…Longer birth intervals can therefore be interpreted as an investment in the index child insomuch as, all else constant, parents have more time to spend with the index child and more money to allocate to the child’s wellbeing until the next child is born. Possibly reflecting these differential constraints, shorter birth intervals have also been shown to be negatively associated with older siblings’ progression in school in sub-Saharan Africa [26] and reading and math scores in the United States [27].…”

Aiding education? The effect of international aid on local educational enrolment in Nigeria

“…This factor includes information about birth order, gender, and whether the individual is the child of the household head. According to the 'resource dilution' argument, parents with many children will have less money to spend on each child, and one might expect that the existence of many siblings will reduce a child's chance of entering school (e.g., Kravdal et al 2013). Relatedly, it has also been suggested that girls have more difficulty than boys in accessing education (UNESCO 2022).…”