Adolescents’ care involvement, school attendance and academic achievement: Evidence from the Young Lives Survey in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (2009-2016)

• In Event: Digital tools supporting youth and gender justice in educational settings

Proposal

Over the past decade, evidence has mounted on the extensive involvement of women and girls in the care economy (encompassing paid and unpaid care work), particularly through time-use surveys that consistently reveal the unequal/gendered distribution of care responsibilities. Despite this sector being vital to sustain our societies, it remains undervalued and particularly understudied among adolescents. Literature shows that the gender imbalance in the care economy begins early in life and only intensifies as girls grow older. Evidence from the Household Care Survey across rural communities in Colombia, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Uganda, and Zimbabwe reveals that girls are more likely to take on both primary care tasks, such as feeding and supervising younger siblings, as well as secondary care duties like cooking and cleaning (Rost and al., 2015). Further, among children aged 5–17 who perform excessive unpaid care work1 globally, two-thirds are girls, and this disparity widens further during adolescence (ILO, 2018). This disproportionate allocation results in time poverty among girls, which has been associated with adverse effects on educational outcomes, including lower school attendance and performance (Singh and al., 2017; Reich and al., 2013 ). Poor education outcomes result in reduced labor force participation and heightened susceptibility to informal sector employment, thereby perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

The topic of adolescent girls’ participation in the care economy is highly relevant to the CIES 2025 conference theme, as it intersects with critical issues of social equity, access to education, and the role of technology in reshaping opportunities for marginalized groups. In a digital society, where education and workforce participation are increasingly mediated by technology, understanding and addressing the care burden on adolescent girls is crucial for promoting gender equality and ensuring that all children have equitable access to educational opportunities. As we transition into a more digitally connected world, adolescent girls who are disproportionately burdened with care responsibilities may find themselves excluded from the benefits of digital education and skill-building opportunities. Addressing this issue is essential to preventing the digital divide from exacerbating existing gender inequalities.

However, there is limited evidence on the associations between adolescent’s time use patterns and educational achievements in resource-constrained settings. In particular, the underlying pathways that lead to lower school attendance and/or performance among adolescents with the highest burden of care responsibilities is less understood. For example, it is assumed that adolescents who engage more in care activities might have less time to attend school and do homework, which leads to lower performance in all subjects and ultimately grade repetition and school dropout. However, it is unclear how school performance could differ among diverse subjects such as numeracy and literacy skills, and which has the most significant impact in later grade attainment.

This paper aims to address this gap by answering the following questions: What is the prevalence of excessive care work among adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)? Does the amount of time spent on care activities at a younger age predict later educational outcomes/achievements (i.e: literacy, numeracy and vocabulary scores/skills, school attendance, and grade attainment)? In other words, are the children with the highest burden of care less likely to be in school and more likely to have low literacy and numeracy scores? Does school attendance mediate the relationship between learning skills and care activities? Finally, are there gender differences in these relationships?

We will use data from the Young Lives Survey (YL) (Barnett al., 2013). YL has been tracking two cohorts of children in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam: a younger cohort of 2,000 children aged between 6-8 months in 2002, and an older cohort born of 1,000 children. Our analysis focuses on the younger cohort at ages 12 and 15. YL asked how many hours children spent on a series of activities during a typical day (from Monday to Friday) in the last week. Time use data is only available at ages 12 and 15, and our focus will be on the time spent on care for others (younger children, ill household members) as well as on domestic tasks (fetching water, firewood, cleaning, cooking, washing, shopping).

We will first estimate the mean daily hours spent in care work and the prevalence of excessive care work, defined as three or more hours per day, at ages 12 and 15, and we will test for gender and age differences within each country. Second, we will estimate concurrent bivariate and multivariate regressions to explore the relationships between care work and education outcomes at each age. Multivariate regression will control relevant family and socioeconomic background characteristics. Third, to go beyond cross-sectional associations, we will estimate multivariate regressions for education outcomes at age 15 and care work and other relevant covariates, including education outcomes, at age 12. To explore whether school attendance mediates any relationship between care work and learning, we will include school attendance at age 15 in the final model. We will conduct all analyses separately by country. Within each country we will estimate all models by gender and test for gender differences.

Preliminary analysis reveals that girls consistently bear a greater burden of excessive care work across all four countries. In India, it rises from 9% at age 12 to 20% at age 15 for girls, compared to 3% to 7% for boys. In Vietnam, 23% of girls and 15% of boys face excessive care work at both ages. In Peru, 34% of girls engage in excessive care work at age 12, with no change by age 15, while for boys, it decreases slightly from 28% to 26%. Ethiopia shows the highest burden, with girls' prevalence rising from 62% at age 12 to 74% at age 15, and boys' slightly increasing from 29% to 32%.

In conclusion, addressing the care burden on adolescent girls is pivotal to bridging the education gender gap and fostering a more inclusive and equitable digital society for all.

Authors

• Maimouna Balde Bah, Population Council

• Erica Soler-Hampejsek

• George Odwe, Population Council, Kenya