Date of Award

5-21-2024

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation - Restricted (NYMC/Touro only) Access

Degree Name

Doctor of Public Health

Department

Public Health

First Advisor

Kenneth Knapp

Second Advisor

Keosha Bond

Third Advisor

Edith Apondi

Abstract

Sexual debut in adolescence presents new challenges and risks of pregnancy and STIs and is associated with the highest HIV risk burden among all age groups globally. While adolescent pregnancy and motherhood have been heavily explored, there remains a critical gap in understanding the circumstances and risk factors for adolescent fatherhood, especially in the context of African countries where the burden of adolescent HIV infection is highest. This study utilized an observational cross-sectional analysis using deidentified data from the 2022 Kenya Demographic Health Surveys (KDHS) to identify the predictors of early fatherhood among Kenyan males. Participants were included in this analysis if they self-identified as male, had a biological child by the time they were 24 years old, and were 25 years or younger at the time of the survey. The study employed descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses to explore the trends and patterns of adolescent fatherhood, with specific responsiveness to demographic, knowledge, behavior, and household structure domains. In the 2022 KDHS dataset, 3% of male respondents were adolescent fathers. Most adolescent fathers (n=439) lived in rural settings (63%), had primary (36%) or secondary (45%) education and held manual labor jobs (45%). Bivariate analysis show a statistically significant relationship between adolescent fatherhood and experiences of emotional (p=0.03) and physical violence (p

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