Sara Mclanahan Lauren Gaydosh Princeton University
Much of the literature on family structure in American sociology focuses on the effects of father absence as a result of divorce or single motherhood. While prolific and robust, the research has focused on the nuclear family and largely ignored the role of kin and extended family as participants in childrearing. The notable exceptions are primarily ethnographic studies that are unable to quantify the influence of complicated family structures on the population at large. The demographic literature on African families focuses similarly on the negative outcomes associated with non-two parent family structures Rather than focusing on divorce and single motherhood as the primary causes of parental absence as in the US, this literatures focuses overwhelmingly on AIDS orphanhood. The research in both the United States and Africa therefore tends to focus on the negative consequences of particular family structures resulting from specific causes of parental absence. This dissertation project investigates parental absence and considers children's experience with parental absence, how this absence influences children's health and education, and how parents make decisions about their children's living arrangements. The researchers are using longitudinal data from demographic surveillance surveys in Tanzania to provide the first quantification of the risk of parental absence to which children are exposed, to decompose the various sources of this risk, and identify the consequences of parental absence for children's wellbeing. Drawing from original qualitative data, the researchers will study how families negotiate childrearing arrangements in response to the needs of children exposed to parental absence.
Broader Impacts
The findings of this research have implications beyond Tanzania. Recent attempts to institutionalize support for children experiencing parental absence in sub-Saharan Africa have focused on AIDS orphans to the exclusion of children exposed to parental absence for other reasons. This approach ignores the role of familial safety nets in caring for children, and policies have consequently been of limited success. The results are relevant for all countries trying to improve the welfare of children in the face of social changes that challenge traditional family forms. In addition, the importance of kin in Tanzania may demonstrate the taken for granted role of extended family members in child rearing practices in the United States. Finally, the successes and shortcomings of the Tanzanian family can shed light on solutions to the problems faced by American families
With the support of the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, I completed a project examining the causes and consequences of parental absence in rural Tanzania. The projectdraws on quantitative, longitudinal data and original qualitative in-depth interview data collected in the Rufiji Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS). As families in Tanzania respond to a constellation of contemporary demographic, social and cultural changes, it is important to understand the implications of such changes for children’s living arrangements and health. The results are relevant not only for this particular geographic locale, but for scholars and policymakers in other countries interested in improving children’s welfare in the face of social and demographic changes that challenge traditional family forms. The projectmakes three main contributions. First, the majority of scholarship and policy programming on parental absence in sub-Saharan Africa focuses on orphanhood due to parental death, often as a result of AIDS related mortality. As a result, we know very little about other reasons for absence. In addition to death, the projectexamines absence due to union formation and dissolution, migration, and child fostering. Second, by examining multiple causes of absence simultaneously, the project provides a unique window into the processes leading to absence and a better understanding of the distinctiveness and similarity of these processes. Finally, the domestic and international research on parental absence tends to focus on the negative consequences of particular family structures resulting from specific causes of parental absence. This research considers the potential positive along with negative effects of parental absence. The project can be divided into three parts. In the first part of the project, I estimate how often and for what reasons parents are absent from their children. For children born into two-parent families, roughly one quarter of children experience maternal absence and 40% experience paternal absence. Children born to unmarried mothers face a much higher risk of maternal absence, with 70% experiencing separation from the mother. I decompose this overall risk into estimates by cause, providing the first estimates of cause-specific risk of parental absence in an African context. I find that, contrary to the emphasis placed on orphanhood in the research and policy communities, parental death is the least common cause of absence. In fact, marriage related absence and migration play a much larger role. Finally, there is important socioeconomic variation in children’s risk of paternal absence. Children from wealthier households are less likely to be separated from their fathers, contributing to our understanding of the role of the family in the intergenerational transmission of inequality. The second part of the project examines the influence of parental absence on child mortality. This project contributes to family sociology and demography by investigating the influence of parental absence in a context of shared childrearing, differentiating between types of absence and extended kin ties. Contrary to previous findings, father absence is associated with higher child mortality, except in the case of migration, where child survival is higher among children with migrant fathers. I find that the association between parental absence and child mortality cannot be explained by differences in social and economic resources between families as theories around parental absence would predict. Instead, the influence of the extended family depends on which parent is absent and the child’s relationship to the kind who remain. For example, residence with grandparents is associated with higher mortality when mothers are present, but is protective in the event of maternal absence. Finally, the third part of the project draws on original qualitative interview data to examine the processes underlying the patterns found in the first two components. I collected 59 in-depth interviews with the parents and extended family of 22 index children. Through these interviews I examine how parents make decisions to live apart from their children, and how they decide who will care for their children in their absence. I analyze the ways in which parents and caregivers are able to secure viable matches between prioritized and available resources in the event of absence, and what strategies they deploy when such matches are not possible.
