Changing Transition to Adulthood in Urban Burkina Faso

Abstract

Based on a unique retrospective survey conducted in 2000 with several cohorts of men and women in Burkina Faso, the study analyzes how the transition to adulthood in the two largest urban centers of the country has evolved over the past twenty years. Results show that both the timing and the nature of important social steps in the lives of male and female youth, such as end of schooling, first paid employment, residential independence, first union and first birth, have undergone considerable changes since 1980. The period during which youth remain economically dependent on their elders seems clearly to be lengthening in Burkinabe cities. With a longer and more complex transition phase between childhood and adulthood, young people's life trajectories are also more diverse and new social categories of urban youth are emerging.