Cultural Meanings and the Aggregation of Actions: The Case of Sex and Schooling in Malawi

Abstract

How can cultural understandings simultaneously diverge from and contribute to aggregate patterns of action? On one hand, shared cognitive associations guide people’s everyday actions, and these actions comprise the behavioral trends that sociologists seek to measure and understand. On the other hand, these shared understandings often contradict behavioral trends. I address this theoretical puzzle by considering the empirical case of sexual relationships and school dropout in Malawi. Moving recursively between longitudinal survey data and in-depth interviews, I compare statistical patterns and cultural beliefs about the relationship between sexual relationships and school dropout. Interviewees emphasized ways that relationships render girls incapable of continuing in school, whereas survey data provide limited support for these posited causal processes. However, these shared beliefs about the detrimental effects of relationships for school performance have real effects: teachers, parents, and students act as if these narratives were true, and these behavioral responses sustain the broader antinomy between sex and schooling. This analysis reveals new insights into how cultural understandings—and the various ways people respond to and enforce them—contribute to the demographic patterns we observe using survey data.

Does schooling protect sexual health? The association between three measures of education and STIs among adolescents in Malawi

“…In short, it may be the characteristics associated with higher grade attainment for girls rather than grade attainment in and of itself that reduces the likelihood of infection. According to Frye's (2017) qualitative analysis in Malawi, becoming involved in a sexual relationship is a socially sanctioned way for girls to leave school, as it is a first step in the marriage process. Thus, girls who do not wish to marry at a young age and want to remain in school and advance to secondary are less inclined to become sexually active.…”

“…In addition, students' sexual networks are said to be safer than those of adolescents who are not attending school (Jukes et al 2008). Social norms that frame sexual activity and schooling as incompatible for girls, referred to as the 'cultural antimony between sex and schooling' (Frye 2017), may delay sexual debut and discourage sexual activity (Clark and Mathur 2012;Alsan and Cutler 2013). Using indepth interviews, Frye describes a shared narrative linking sexual activity with academic performance, absenteeism, and dropout among students and teachers in Malawi.…”

Tsogolo la Thanzi: A Longitudinal Study of Young Adults Living in Malawi's HIV Epidemic

“…Key findings have centered on the changing HIV treatment context (Yeatman et al. ; Yeatman and Trinitapoli ), fertility preferences (Trinitapoli and Yeatman ; Yeatman, Sennott, and Culpepper ; Yeatman and Sennott ; Sennott and Yeatman ; Trinitapoli and Yeatman ), education and literacy (Smith‐Greenaway ; Frye ), young‐adult relationships (Frye and Trinitapoli ), and family dynamics (Bachan ; Trinitapoli, Yeatman, and Fledderjohann ). A publication list for TLT is available at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OFx9oPIAAAAJ&hl=en.…”

Unraveling the ‘female teacher effect’: The positioning and agency of female teachers in girls’ education reform

“…While the KGIS program focuses on keeping girls in school, it is enacted in a context where sex and pregnancy are viewed as the main reasons where girl might be kept out of school. The following vignette more explicitly outlines the impacts of these cultural models (Frye, 2017) have on teacher activities and the methods teachers use to encourage student retention.…”