Timing of birth and the marriage process in urban Kenya: Consequences for children’s well-being.

• In Event: Sociology of Population Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3. Family and Gender

Abstract

This paper reconceptualizes the relationship between fertility timing and children’s well-being by treating marriage not as a binary status but as a multi-step process of union formalization (UF). Demographic research commonly distinguishes births as either premarital or postmarital, implicitly assuming that all premarital births confer similar levels of disadvantage. This study challenges that assumption by examining how the timing of childbirth relative to stages of UF shapes children’s risk and support environments in Nairobi’s informal settlements of Korogocho and Viwandani. By shifting attention from static marital categories to dynamic union trajectories, this study refines measurement of family context in African demography and identifies which children are truly most at risk

Authors

• Patrick Okooboh, University of Maryland-College Park

• Sangeetha Madhavan, University of Maryland-College Park