Malawi Schooling and Adolescent Study
This six-round longitudinal study aims to identify critical aspects of school quality that put adolescents who face the dual challenges of poverty and HIV/AIDS on a safer, healthier, and more productive path to adulthood. Our research seeks to uncover those aspects of schooling that will lead to more protective behaviors and lower HIV risk among young men and women.
When schooling of good quality is accessible, and educational experiences are positive, disadvantaged children can acquire the capabilities to break out of poverty and access a greater range of opportunities as adults. Indeed, it is likely in the poorest settings that schooling makes the greatest contribution to children’s futures. By coupling in-depth data on school quality with comprehensive longitudinal data on adolescents (including those who have left school) and their HIV risk and status, this study aims to elucidate the interrelationships between schooling, educational outcomes, and HIV risk and status among young people in Malawi. The study uses innovative data-collection techniques and methodological experiments, in particular audio computer-assisted self-interviewing (ACASI), life event cards, and biomarkers to obtain more accurate information about sensitive issues. Given the disappointments that have confronted the HIV prevention field, investigating the ways in which broader contextual and structural factors influence HIV risk and potentially enhance or undermine the effectiveness of interventions is increasingly important. Malawi, one of the pioneers in eliminating primary school fees in 1994, serves as a case study for exploring issues of significance throughout Southern Africa. Read more about selected findings from the project here.
Objectives
- To assess the effects of primary school quality and nonacademic aspects of schooling experiences on:
- educational outcomes, including attendance, grade attainment, competencies, exam scores, attitudes toward schooling, and transition to secondary school; and
- the terms and conditions of the transition to adulthood, especially sexual behavior and infection status, marriage, labor force participation, civic and community participation, and gender role attitudes;
- To examine the associations between conventional educational outcomes—grade and level attained—and sexual behavior and infection status;
- To investigate whether a more detailed set of educational outcomes—literacy and numeracy skills, reading comprehension, knowledge of reproductive biology and HIV transmission, gender attitudes, and agency (for females)—affect sexual behavior and infection status;
- To implement and analyze experimental studies that
- compare the reporting of sensitive behaviors by interview mode—face-to-face interviews (FTFI) versus ACASI;
- compare reporting of sexual behavior and contraceptive use with biomarkers of STIs, including HIV;
- evaluate techniques for minimizing measurement error in FTF-administered surveys of sexual behavior; and
- evaluate the feasibility of computerized interviews in developing countries and assess respondent reaction to computer technology;
- To evaluate the effects of various educational interventions which have taken place in rural Malawi; and
- Based on the research findings, to develop policy recommendations and propose designs for school-based interventions that reduce HIV risk among young people in Malawi.
Project impact
Nowhere are the challenges faced by young people greater, and the benefits of schooling more important, than in countries struggling with the problems of persistent poverty, malnutrition, adverse health, and HIV and AIDS. Our research is significant in recognizing the potential implications of school quality for sexual behavior and HIV/HSV-2 acquisition and, ultimately, in identifying specific policies and programmatic interventions at the school level that could yield payoffs in slowing the HIV epidemic. The study contributes substantially to our existing knowledge about reports of sexual behavior, their validity, and reliability. Innovations in methodology, such as the creation and enhancement of our life event cards, can shed light on the mystery behind discrepancies that plague self-reports that are integral to the study of the transitions to adulthood, promoting better design of instruments and more accurate interpretation of data.
Links
MSAS study design
- Longitudinal design: Annual interviewing
- Data collection: Second term of school year
- School sample (2007): Probability of selection proportional to enrollment
- Balaka: 29 schools—25% of total primary schools
- Machinga: 30 schools—20% of total primary schools
- Adolescents (ages 14–16 at the start of 2007):
- In-school (standards 4–8): 1,764 students, 889 boys, 875 girls
- Out-of-school: 886 adolescents, 423 boys, 463 girls
2007 target sample
- In-school adolescents
- Randomly select 5 boys and 5 girls at each of ages 14–16 attending standards 4–8
- Sample: Target = 30 students per school x 59 schools = 1,770; Actual = 1,764
- Out-of-school adolescents
- Approximately 25% of 14–16-year-olds are out of school
- Head teacher at each school identified adolescents who dropped out previous year, and current students identified youths in their villages about their age not attending school
- Sample: Target = 531; Actual = 886
2008–2010 follow-up rate (percentage of 2007 adolescent sample reinterviewed each year)
- Round 2, 2008: 91%
- Round 3, 2009: 90%
- Round 4, 2010, 88%
Study context and history
Malawi is among the ten poorest countries in the world with a gross national income per capita (GNI-PPP) of $830 in 2008 (World Bank WDR, 2010). Age at marriage among women is early, with nearly half of girls marrying before the age of 18. In Malawi, there are high rates of separation and divorce, which may be both a cause and consequence of HIV. According to the 2010 DHS, HIV prevalence in Malawi is currently estimated to be 10.6 percent with substantial variability across the country; in the South, the region where our longitudinal survey is situated, prevalence is estimated to be 14.5 percent (National Statistical Office [NSO] and ICF Macro 2011). Rural Malawian schools struggle with extremely limited resources and inadequate school supplies, extremely high student-teacher ratios, and understaffed, untrained teachers.
The study's longitudinal design, encompassing repeated assessments of the schooling environment and yearly follow-up of a sample of in- and out-of-school adolescents, enables the direct comparison of outcomes and experiences over time. A grant from the Spencer Foundation (2007–2009) funded primary school visits to Balaka and Machinga, two contiguous rural districts in southern Malawi, to measure students' educational status, performance, and schooling experiences. Machinga has had significant donor and government investment in primary education to address issues of quality; Balaka does not have a broad history of donor support and serves as a comparison district to Machinga. A grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) expanded our data collection effort to include household visits and methodological experiments in 2009 to capture a wide range of information about the adolescents' lives and experiences. In 2010, another grant awarded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD extended our observation period by four more years, through 2013, and expanded the data collection to include testing for HIV and herpes simplex 2 (HSV-2). Over the course of the study, we have received additional funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).
Links
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 5 | Round 6 and beyond |
Papers, Presentations, Workshops (PDF)
Publications
- Kelly, Christine A. 2011. "Investigating school quality and learning outcomes among adolescents in Malawi," Promoting Healthy, Safe, and Productive Transitions to Adulthood Brief no. 34. New York: Population Council. (PDF)
Data and Documentation
- Questionnaires address adolescents, head teachers, teachers (standards 4–8 only), and school facilities. The adolescent questionnaire asks about: family and household characteristics; educational history, current schooling, schooling experiences; marriage, fertility, labor force participation; domestic violence, gender attitudes, social capital; self-reported health, nutrition, height and weight measurement, reproductive and HIV knowledge, HIV risk perception; math and literacy assessment. The head teacher and teacher questionnaires ask about: education, training, teaching experience; pedagogical practices, teaching behavior-support, punishment; gender equity, attitudes, gender-based harassment, violence; teacher absenteeism. The school facilities questionnaire asks about: facilities, teachers, textbooks; administrative oversight and monitoring.
- Round 1 questionnaires
- Adolescent Student (FTFI and ACASI)
- Adolescent Out-of-School (FTFI and ACASI)
- Adolescent Health
- Adolescent Literacy and Math
- Teacher (FTFI, ACASI, Head Teachers Only)
- Teacher Absence Grid
- School Facilities Inventory
- Village Chief
- Round 2 questionnaires
- Adolescent (FTFI and ACASI)
- Adolescent Literacy and Math
- Teacher (FTFI, ACASI, Head Teachers Only)
- School Facilities Inventory
- Round 3 questionnaires
- Adolescent FTFI
- Adolescent ACASI
- Adolescent Literacy and Math
- Household Census
- Teacher (FTFI, ACASI, Head Teachers Only)
- Teacher Absence Grid
- Contact Info
- School Facilities Inventory
- Life Events
- Round 4 questionnaires
- Adolescent FTFI
- Adolescent ACASI
- Adolescent Literacy and Math
- Life Events
- Contact Info
- Codes Sheet and Informants
- Biomarker Form
- Rounds 5– questionnaires
- Adolescent FTFI
- Adolescent ACASI
- Adolescent Literacy and Math
- Life Events
- Contact Info
- Codes Sheet and Informants
- Biomarker Form
- Manuals
Data Collection Techniques
- Face-to-face Interview (FTFI): Adolescent, Teacher, Head Teacher
- Audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI): Adolescent, Teacher, Head Teacher
- Life Event Cards: Adolescent (PDF)
- Biomarkers: Adolescent
- Reading ability and reading comprehension: Chichewa and English; Official Standard 3 and Standard 5 mathematics assessments: Adolescent
- Observation: Facilities
Project Stats
Location: Malawi (Balaka and Machinga districts)
Program(s):
Poverty, Gender, and Youth
Topic(s):
Adolescence/transitions to adulthood
Child marriage
HIV and children
HIV prevention
RTIs/STIs
Schooling
Sexual and gender-based violence
Sexuality and sexual behavior
Sexuality education
Duration: 1/2007 - 4/2015
Population Council researchers:
Nicole Haberland
Paul C. Hewett
Christine Kelly
Barbara S. Mensch
Mark R. Montgomery
Erica Soler-Hampejsek
Samir Souidi
Non-Council collaborators:
Ann Biddlecom (Alan Guttmacher Institute)
Chris Sudfeld (Invest in Knowledge/Harvard Humanitarian Initiative)
Johanna Rankin (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)
Joseph P.G. Chimombo (CERT, University of Malawi, Zomba)
Linda Kalilani-Phiri (College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre)
Monica J. Grant (Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin)
Mphatso Mwpasa (Invest in Knowledge, Malawi)
Newton Kumwenda (Malawi College of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University Research Project, Blantyre)
Peter C. Fleming (Invest in Knowledge, Malawi)
Donors:
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The Spencer Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
UK Department for International Development
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