Abstract
In this chapter, we illustrate the process of social change through an examination of two markers of the transition to adulthood in Ethiopia: (1) entry into marriage, and (2) desired family size. The data include 2084 in-school youths aged between 13 and 17 years from the urban and rural areas of Jimma Zone of Southwest Ethiopia. We investigate how youths’ own perceived individual aspirations and lifetime goals (i.e. agency) are associated with increased levels of education. Coupled with parental expectations and family and community context, these inform youth about the timing of the transition to adulthood. Our findings show that community norms of family formation and the level of socioeconomic development in their community are strong predictors of life course plans. Even though social identity also appears to affect how the youth envision their life course plans, agency, as conceptualized by the “capability approach”, seems to have little impact on this cohorts’ family formation plans. Thus, it appears that youth’s desires to benefit from the expanding educational and occupational opportunities by reinterpreting family formations norms, e.g., by delaying marriage, have not yet been incorporated in the youths’ life course planning (perhaps due to stringent social mores, as exemplified by the statistical significance of community norms as a predictor of life course plans). Addressing this palpable cohort-disparity between youths’ perception of expanded opportunities and that of their parents who lived through relatively limited opportunities is crucial in enhancing the benefits of the recent structural investments in human capital in the region.
The Mellon Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Packard Foundation, and Compton Foundation provided support for this paper.
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Herman, M. et al. (2011). Better-Educated Youth as a Vanguard of Social Change? Adolescent Transitions to Later Marriage and Lower Fertility in Southwest Ethiopia. In: Teller, C. (eds) The Demographic Transition and Development in Africa. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8918-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8918-2_5
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