Is Mother’s Education or Household Poverty a Better Predictor for Girl’s School Dropout? Evidence from Aggregated Community Effects in Rural India

Table 1

Frequency, percent, and chi-square distribution of selected individual and community variables with school status in rural India.

Variables	Category	Percent	School status		Pearson chi-squared	value
Individual/household factors			Dropout (%)	In school (%)
Current age (years)	14–16	52.6	30.1	69.8	82.23	0.000	760
	17–18	47.4	53.6	46.3			686
Number of siblings	0–2	26.0	36.7	63.3	5.48	0.019	376
	3 and more	74.0	42.9	57.1			1,070
Caste	Scheduled caste	20.5	48.3	51.7	21.51	0.011	296
	Scheduled tribe	28.9	46.7	53.4			418
	Others	50.6	35.4	64.6			732
Economic status	BPL family	54.6	44.9	55.1	9.57	0.000	790
	Non-BPL family	45.4	36.9	63.1			656
Marital status	Not married	73.6	32.3	67.7	164.33	0.000	1,064
	Married-no Gauna	13.8	52.8	47.2			199
	Married-Gauna performed	12.6	80.9	19.1			183
Occupation of main earner in family	Irregular worker	45.0	49.7	50.3	38.39	0.000	650
	Farmer	47.5	35.8	64.2			687
	Formal sector	7.5	25.7	74.3			109
Decision on education	Father	55.5	42.3	57.7	21.85	0.000	803
	Parents and self	38.1	36.5	63.5			551
	Other than parents	6.4	60.9	39.1			92
Parents education	Both illiterate	34.9	58.8	41.2	121.10	0.000	505
	Any parent educated	35.8	38.8	61.2			518
	Both educated	29.2	23.4	76.6			423
Gender perception index	Low	17.63	67.45	32.55	143.55	0.000	255
	Moderate	23.37	52.66	47.34			338
	High	58.99	28.96	71.04			853
Village/community factors		Mean			t-test	p value
SC and ST population	%	28.9			−3.0555	0.0011	1446
BPL and below BPL	%	54.6			−2.2759	0.0115	1446
Mean age at marriage (years)		14.6			16.76	0.0127	1446
Mother literacy	%	31.8			8.996	0.0000	1446

Note. BPL: identified household grouped as poor based on having below poverty line card identified by Government of India.