Chronic illness has a profoundly negative impact on the welfare of households, especially for the adolescents who live there. Those who lack a social welfare safety net, particularly youth, are much more dependent on the capacities of individuals within the household. Therefore, to better understand how to improve the general welfare of households, it is important to understand what factors impact the social welfare and health status of households impacted by chronic illness. This dissertation reports on a study of how the capacities of Kenyan households impact the capacity of female adolescents to cope with chronic illness in the household. The data for this dissertation came from the 2003 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) (Kenya Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), Ministry of Health (MOH), & ORC Macro, 2004). The data includes detailed information on maternal and child health from Kenyan females’ ages 15 to 49 years. The study focuses on adolescents aged 15 to 24. iv The average age for this population was 19.39 years; those between the ages of 20 and 24 comprised nearly half (over 47%) of the sample. The beginning hypothesis was that higher vulnerability and lower household coping capacity in female adolescents’ environments lead to lower health status. This hypothesis was measured by a number of illness indicators within a discrete time period. Nearly 38% of the female respondents reported some form of illness, with significant positive correlation with age. Therefore, the study tested a number of relationships between the environmental factors and health status for this population, such as their exposure to life shock (death, chronic illness of family member) and their relationship to vulnerability to risk behaviors (Appendix 4). The refined hypothesis was that higher household resources could help lower these risks, but absence of parental guidance could increase it. This study found a strong association between reported illness and environmental factors in the household. Age and marriage were highly significant factors, producing a sevenfold increase in the chance of illness. Risky sexual behavior, sexual abuse and violence were risk factors that were also significantly associated with illness in this adolescent population. Violence and abuse were related to a 14-fold increase in illness. Living in a rural area and limited household coping resources were also significantly associated with illness