The specific ways in which social, cultural, and economic factors influence the management of children's excreta are assessed in this report. Also presented are guidelines for training extension agents in the collection of household-level data for use in designing hygiene education components of water supply and sanitation projects. Chapter I uses research conducted in rural Kenya and urban Djibouti to describe the sociocultural context of programs for management by low-income households of young children's excreta. Chapter II describes a household study of the handling and disposal of children's feces carried out in 1986 in two regions of Kwale District in Kenya. Chapter III provides a step-by-step outline of procedures for carrying out socioeconomic research on household water, sanitation, and hygiene conditions and practices. It details the community context of household-level research, outlines survey and interview research methodologies, and defines the process by which research findings are reviewed and applied to planning. Chapter IV describes how the data collection process can be integrated with the planning process and how planners actually use the data they obtain. Lessons learned from two projects in Djibouti are highlighted.