title: Growing up at the 'margins': Concerns, aspirations, and expectations of young people living in Nairobi's slums.
abstract: We explore the concerns, challenges, aspirations, and expectations of sub-Saharan African youth, and investigate how these youth cope with neighborhood constraints to aspiration achievement. We draw on cross-sectional survey data from 4033 12-22 year olds (50.3% males) from two Kenyan urban slums and subsequent in-depth interviews conducted with a subset of 75 youth when they were 13-24 years old (45.3% male). We observe that despite the challenges characteristic of urban slums, some youth maintain high aspirations and try to achieve them through education, delinquency, residential mobility, and religion. We note that others adjust their aspirations to account for limited opportunities. Overall, our findings highlight positive youth agency and underscore the need to improve the quality of life in urban slums.
authors.affiliation: African Population and Health Research Center.
authors.forename: Caroline W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Kabiru
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology and Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado at Boulder.
authors.forename: Sanyu A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mojola
authors.affiliation: African Population and Health Research Center.
authors.forename: Donatien
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beguy
authors.affiliation: Graduate student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health.
authors.forename: Chinelo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Okigbo
keywords: Aspirations and concerns; Sub-Saharan Africa; Urban Context