Attitudes towards children

Because of how extended and complex they are, family structures and networks in sub-Saharan Africa are often thought of as institutions that enable people to cope with vulnerability and diminish the impact of inequalities and sudden adverse economic and family events, as they allow for redistributing the costs of taking care of individual members.

Does this mean that wellbeing and outcomes for children are independent of the family configuration they are a part of? Or do attitudes toward children differ by family network and the individual child’s place in that family?

The project examined the influence of family environment on behaviours toward children in different ways and in connection with different aspects: access to resources; relational network density as a brake on individual decision-making; the role of extended networks in diffusing new behaviours; the strengthening of the conjugal unit and parental investment in the child.

The analyses focused on several phenomena: child mortality, schooling, child mobility, female genital mutilation, and civil registration of births. The influence of religious membership was also taken into account.