Title: Family planning access and its relationship to female school completion rates in Uganda
Authors: Dr. Arinaitwe Julius, Dr. Twinomujuni Rosebell, Asiimwe Isaac Kazaara
Volume: 10
Issue: 7
Pages: 320-329
Publication Date: 2026/07/28
Abstract:
This study examined the relationship between family planning (FP) access and female secondary school completion rates in Uganda, with particular attention to how the phenomenon plays out within Christian institutional contexts where faith-founded schools and church teaching shape adolescents' exposure to, and use of, reproductive health information and services. Guided by a conceptual model linking religiosity, household socioeconomic status (SES), and geographic access to FP services with early/unintended pregnancy and school completion, the study adopted a cross-sectional quantitative design. A structured questionnaire was administered to 450 female secondary school students aged 13-20 years drawn through stratified multistage sampling from government-aided, private, and faith-founded (Christian-sponsored) secondary schools across the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Western regions of Uganda. Data were analysed using univariate statistics (frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations), bivariate techniques (chi-square tests of association, independent-samples t-tests, Pearson correlation, and binary logistic regression), and structural equation modelling (SEM) to test hypothesised direct and indirect pathways. Results showed that only 47.8% of respondents had completed secondary school, and 33.6% reported an early or unintended pregnancy. FP access was significantly associated with school completion (?2 = 8.77, p = .012) and with reduced likelihood of early pregnancy (?2 = 14.68, p < .001). The SEM, which fit the data very well (?2(48) = 52.00, p = .321; CFI = .998; RMSEA = .014), showed that religiosity was significantly and negatively associated with FP access (? = -.29, p < .001), while FP access was significantly and negatively associated with early pregnancy (? = -.29, p < .001), which in turn was a strong negative predictor of school completion (? = -.16, p < .001). The total effect of FP access on completion (? = .17) exceeded its modest direct effect, confirming that early pregnancy substantially mediated the relationship. Religiosity exerted a small positive direct effect on completion but a roughly offsetting negative indirect effect operating through restricted FP access, yielding a near-zero total effect. The study concludes that Christian religious engagement can simultaneously protect and undermine female school completion in Uganda, depending on whether it is accompanied by adequate access to family planning information and services. It recommends that faith-based education institutions integrate doctrinally-sensitive reproductive health education alongside expanded linkages to youth-friendly FP services, that government and church health providers jointly improve geographic access to such services, and that school-based mentorship programmes combine spiritual guidance with structured pregnancy-prevention support.