Evolving families and child wellbeing

Introduction: Micronutrient malnutrition contributes substantially to the global burden of disease. Micronutrient malnutrition in preschool children is rampant in India. Objective: To assess the impact of multiple micronutrient fortified flour and nutricandy on growth and hemoglobin levels of preschool children (3-6 yrs) for a period of 60 days in urban slums of Vadodara, India. Methodology: Baseline and End line data was collected on socio-economic status, hemoglobin levels, dietary intake and anthropometric measurements. Preschool children (3-6 yrs) are supplemented with 80 gm of multiple micronutrient fortified flour and one nutricandy daily at the anganwadi center. Result: At the end of the intervention period, all subjects (both boys and girls) showed significant increment in weight and height. A significant rise of 5.3% in hemoglobin levels was seen (0.55 g/dl, p < 0.05) for all the subjects among the various age groups. The overall prevalence of anemia decreased from 68% to 44% after supplementation. Conclusion and Recommendation: Multiple micronutrient food supplementation led to a rise in growth, reducing the prevalence and severity of anemia among the preschool children. Thus, can be recommended as a short term strategy for improving hemoglobin levels in preschool children belonging to the low socioeconomic status.

In 2006, among Brazilian women aged 15-49 who had given birth to a live child during their lives, 69.3% had got married before having their first child, 15.8% had got married at the same age as giving birth to their first child, 10.8% had got married after having their first child and 4.1% were mothers who had never been married. If being a single mother in the past was an experience marked by stigma and moral condemnation, acceptance in today’s society is much higher across practically all social classes. This greater acceptance seems to be mainly linked to the gains made in women’s economic independence, but also reflects a change in values which disassociate sex from marriage and marriage from reproduction. The objective of this paper is to investigate if it is possible to perceive any inequality between children according to their mother’s marital status. Three dimensions have been considered: 1) if the children are registered citizens through the emission of a birth certificate; 2) if the children attend school in a grade appropriate to their age; 3) if there is any kind of disadvantage in terms of access to basic sanitation, which would indicate social vulnerability.

India has the highest incidence of childhood malnutrition in the world. National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2005 – 06 examined the effects of mother’s nutrition, education and socioeconomic factors on the nutritional status of children and women. Objective: To assess the association between household structure and other socioeconomic status on the nutritional status of children and women in India. Methodology: Data analysis was done using NFHS-III, besides cross tabulations, a regression analysis was done for two states: Kerala and Orissa to understand the factors influencing nutritional status. Child nutritional status was measured using anthropometric indices: height-for-age and weight-for-height and body mass index (BMI) for women. Result: Children belonging to ST caste and lower socio economic status are more severely malnourished in nuclear family as compared to non nuclear family in both the states. Percentage of thin women is high in nuclear family rather than non-nuclear family belonging to ST caste and higher illiteracy rate. Conclusion: Positive relation between household structure, socio economic status and nutritional status was seen in both the states. Recommendation: Better socioeconomic status of women and literacy programs could play an important role in improving the nutritional status of children and women.

This paper analyses children’s likelihood of experiencing stress in shared physical custody settings with shared and alternating residence after parental union dissolution. Living in two different households and alternating not just between two geographical locations but also potentially between two different “parental regimes” with different rules and customs may increase children’s feeling of stress.
We use the Swedish Survey of Living Conditions, a high quality cross-sectional data set with information gathered from the parents as well as the children themselves. The sample for this study includes all children living with a single parent or in a stepfamily setting (n=853).
The tentative results show a surprising pattern with children living in a shared physical custody setting with alternating residence between the households of the mother and the father reporting a markedly lower likelihood of feeling stressed. We also see that girls have much higher likelihood of feeling stressed than boys do.

Why is it that children who live with a single mother two cohabiting parents have poorer heath and developmental outcomes than children who live with two biological parents? Differential access to high quality and stable housing circumstances by family structure may be one important factor, especially in countries like the United States where housing costs are high and housing assistance is limited. Because family structure is strongly linked to income, married, two parent families are in a better position to be able to afford appropriate housing. Dissolution, more likely amongst unmarried parents, is likely to be linked to housing instability and moves into lower quality or public housing projects, both of which have been shown to be negatively associated with child outcomes. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this paper aims to identify whether and how housing and family circumstances are inter-related in the production of child health. Preliminary findings suggest strong links between family structure and housing tenure. For childhood asthma, housing tenure appears to be an important explanatory pathway, and children of social housing tenants appear particularly at risk.

Studies on children ‘left-behind’ indicate that children suffer psychologically from parental migration. Yet, most of these studies are case studies with no comparison group, leaving open the question whether the findings relate particularly to transnational families. Also, most studies target Latin America or Asia. The literature identifies important factors for children’s well-being: which parent migrates, length of separation, networks of family support and school systems. This study investigates children’s well-being through a cross-national survey conducted in 3 African countries in 2010-11 (Ghana N=2,760; Angola N=2,243; Nigeria N=2,168). It compares children in transnational families with those living with their parents in the country of origin. As such it further tests findings from previous qualitative studies and adds the case of African transnational families to the literature. Children’s well-being is measured through the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results show that children experience greater psychological difficulties when mothers or both parents have migrated, live with non-kin, change caregiver often, and have their migrant parent(s) away internationally. Negative well-being is further associated with low economic conditions and divorced or separated families that children are in.

The Canadian province of Québec, the second most populous, to increase mother’s participation in the labour market and to enhance child development, implemented in 1997 a $5 per day universal childcare policy. Over time, the age requirement for subsidized spaces progressively decreased and the number of subsidized spaces increased. By September 2000, the low-fee policy applied to all children aged 0 to 4. By March 2012, the number of regulated-subsidized paces reached 225,107, a 211 percentage increase over 1997. In 2008 78% of children aged 1 to 4 were in low-fee childcare. The policy has significantly increased the labour force participation and annual weeks worked of mothers. We use Statistics Canada’s annual 1997 to 2009 Survey on households spending to: a) document the raising share of mothers’ income in total income of households in Québec compared to similar families in the other provinces; b) estimate the impact of the policy (treatment and control groups) based on an IV instrumental technique (generalized method of moments) on expenditures items. The results show that more income in the hands of women impacts on the structure of expenditures within the household, raised budget shares on children and collective family goods and services.

Despite improvements in access to health care, India has substantial geographical inequalities in health outcomes eg, life expectancy is 56 years in Madhya Pradesh and 74 years in Kerala; this difference of 18 years is higher than the provincial differences in life expectancy in China, or the interstate differences in the USA. The present study tries: to study the extent of regional inequalities in performance of health outcomes, to study the trend in regional disparity and to understand gap between millennium development goals and performance of regions. In order to meet above mentioned objective, 3 rounds of National Family Health Surveys were analyzed for India. States were classified in 6 regions as per NFHS-report classification. The result suggests that performance of health outcome is not same across regions. The health outcomes found to be good in Sothern region, followed by Western region and lowest in East and Central region. The trend analysis shows that the gap between good performing regions to poor performing region is narrowing over the year except the performance in institutional delivery. Even though health outcomes shows positive trend across the region, still achievement of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) remains as a challenge including southern region.

Children’s outcomes are influenced by the family structures to which they are exposed during childhood, yet we know little about the childhood experience of different family forms. Using demographic surveillance data from three regions of rural Tanzania, this paper explores the living arrangements of children, with a particular emphasis on experiences of parental absence. This paper estimates the childhood risk of parental absence until age 15, and decomposes this risk into parental death and parental migration. The paper presents estimates for proportion of childhood spent residing without the parent. Finally, using Cox’s proportional hazards regression analysis, this paper investigates the child, parental, and household level predictors of parental absence. This paper finds that parental absence due to migration is more common than due to death, and that paternal absence is more common than maternal. Together these estimates provide a detailed picture Tanzanian children’s experience of parental absence.

Increasing emigration and 'feminisation' of migration flows have raised concerns about the potential effects of migration on family life and children in particular. Previous research has investigated the links between migration and child emotional health ( Asis, 2006; Jones et al, 2004; Suárez-Orozco et al, 2011), but the limited number and cross-cultural applicability of available studies highlights the need to use a holistic, mixed-methods approach (Mazzucato & Schans 2011). This paper compares psychosocial well-being outcomes of children in two-parent homes to those in single- or no-parent homes due to parental migration. Data from 1,983 Moldovan households with children aged 0-18 will be analysed using probit regression analysis. Psychosocial health, the dependent variable, will be compared among children in two-, one-, and no-parent households by household migration type (current-, return-, or non-migrant). Further comparisons will be made by reason for parental absence (migration, divorce, death, etc.) in order to isolate the effects of parental migration. Covariates will include child/caregiver age and gender, household socio-economic status, and duration of parental absence. Results will be interpreted using information collected from 36 in-depth interviews conducted among children and their caregivers.