Living Arrangements of Children in sub Saharan Africa and their Implication on Schooling

This paper examines living arrangements of children in Africa and assesses their implication on schooling. Children experience diverse living arrangements due to a great variety of reasons. AIDS-related adult mortality continues to have a significant influence on children’s living arrangements in Africa, leading to more fostering. However, regardless of parent’s survival status, child fostering remains a deep-rooted practice in Africa. Changing living arrangements of children raise concerns about the long-term investment in education. The reason is welfare and investment of children in education depends on the ability of the caretakers to provide for them. Five percent census data from Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) is used to establish trends and patterns of children’s living arrangements and identify factors that predict children‘s living arrangements; assess implications of living arrangements on children’s schooling; and identify factors that predict children’s schooling. Children living in households with mothers only are significantly higher than those with fathers only in the household. Survival statuses of parents, age of the child, and to a lesser extent, marital status, are predictors of living arrangements. Type of households, wealth index and age of the child are predictors of children schooling.