Research from sub-Saharan Africa has shown the heightened likelihood of dropping out of school for students in sexual relationships, particularly girls. However, our knowledge is limited as to whether the risk of school dropout is exacerbated by the exchange of gifts in the relationship as well as students’ poverty level. Drawing on longitudinal survey data from rural Malawi, this study explores these questions, examining differences by gender and poverty level in the association between being in a sexual relationship in which gifts are exchanged and school dropout for adolescents in primary school. Our findings show that for both boys and girls, being in a gifting relationship heightens the risk of school dropout and eliminates the protective advantages of being nonpoor on dropout. However, non-gifting sexual relationships also erase the protective advantage of being nonpoor for girls, but not for boys. These results point to the value of examining poverty–gender interactions to gain a more nuanced understanding of the impact of sexual relationships on adolescent trajectories.

中文翻译：

---

马拉维农村的送礼关系和辍学：按性别和贫困水平检查差异

来自撒哈拉以南非洲的研究表明，发生性关系的学生，尤其是女孩，辍学的可能性增加。然而，我们对关系中的礼物交换以及学生的贫困程度是否会加剧辍学风险的了解有限。本研究利用来自马拉维农村的纵向调查数据，探讨了这些问题，研究了处于交换礼物的性关系与小学青少年辍学之间关系的性别和贫困程度差异。我们的研究结果表明，对于男孩和女孩来说，处于有天赋的关系中会增加辍学的风险，并消除辍学时不贫穷的保护优势。然而，没有天赋的性关系也消除了女孩不贫穷的保护优势，但男孩则不然。这些结果表明，研究贫困与性别的相互作用对于更细致地了解性关系对青少年轨迹的影响具有重要意义。