Gender, poverty, family structure, and investments in children's educationin Kinshasa, Congo

This paper examines school enrollment and educational attainment in Kinshas a, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo and second-largest city in s ub-Saharan Africa. We focus on the impact of poverty, household structure, and economic well-being more generally on investments in children's educati on and differences by gender in such investments. These issues are addresse d using data from a 1990 survey that provided information on the enrollment status and educational attainment of more than 8500 youths aged 6-25. We f ind that increased economic well-being translates into greater investments in children's education for both females and males. However, improved econo mic status does not necessarily result in reduced gender differences in sch ool outcomes. In addition, family structure (as measured by the number of c hildren in the household in different age groups) and a child's relationshi p to the head of the household are also found to be significant influences on investments in children's education. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.