Family living arrangements and children wellbeing

The relationship between family structure and child well-being has been little studied in lower income settings. In Botswana new household types have emerged with increases in female headship, non-marital childbearing and parental cooperation with other household members. This study examines the association between household structure and child health in Botswana, measured by physical health. The study pays more attention to the heterogeneity of the household membership. This involves a larger kin network beyond biological parents. Second, the study explores if contextual factors are associated with child health. Three measures of child health assessed are stunting, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection. Data used are from the 2000 Multiple Indicator Survey (MICS), and the 2007 Botswana Family Health Surveys (BFHS). Simple and logistic multilevel models are used to control for confounding variables associated with child health. The study demonstrates the importance of shared household resources, processes, and family functioning that goes beyond biological parent families on child health outcomes.

Childhood moving has been associated with negative outcomes, almost regardless of the specific outcome studied. Most studies struggle to differentiate whether the move is harmful in itself or whether the adverse outcomes are results of underlying causes.
We use detailed data on complete cohorts of children born in Norway 1965-1980 (N=967 151), their parents and siblings, and information on all their residential relocation between the around 400 municipalities in Norway. We use both logistic regression and sibling fixed-effects models. First, we assess how different outcomes are affected by the number of times a child has moved. Next, we examine whether the child’s age at moving is important.
The results suggest that risks for not completing high school, low adult income, early parenthood and early mortality increase with each additional residential relocation during childhood. For instance, odd ratios for not completing high school were 1.64 (CI 1.61-1.68) for children who moved more than 3 times compared with non-movers. The logistic regression results were largely confirmed by the sibling fixed-effects models. Considering age at moving, we found that moves prior to elementary school did not have significant adverse long-term effects, whereas moves during middle school (13-15 years) appeared to be particularly detrimental.

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.