Childhood Risk of Parental Absence in Rural Tanzania

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. Introduction From the literature on child wellbeing, we know that family structure influences a range of outcomes for children in widely varying contexts, including mental and physical health and education (Case, Paxson and Ableidinger 2004; McLanahan, Tach and Schneider forthcoming). Furthermore, the influence of family extends into adulthood, shaping income, sexual behavior and family formation later in life (Birdthistle et al. 2008; Pallermo and Peterman 2009). We know from the literature in other contexts that it is important to examine various causes of parental absence (Graefe and Lichter 1999; Heuveline, Timberlake and Furstenberg 2003). While there is a rich literature on traditional practices of fostering and kinship obligations in subSaharan Africa, this is largely divorced from the more recent literature that has been preoccupied with an almost singular focus on orphanhood, particularly as a result of AIDS mortality (Goody 1982; Page 1989; Case and Paxson 2004; Adato et al. 2005). While certainly an important problem, a narrow focus on orphanhood to the exclusion of alternative family structures obscures children’s experiences of instability and parental absence. In this paper I argue that, in order to more fully understand children’s outcomes we need a broader understanding of the living arrangements and episodes of parental absence to which they are exposed. This paper contributes to a fuller understanding of children’s living arrangements by looking simultaneously at various family forms and causes of parental absence. Background The literature on children and family structure in sub-Saharan Africa can be organized broadly into two bodies of work. First, the extensive literature on kinship and social reproduction in subSaharan Africa focuses on the cultural elements of childrearing and the use of fostering as a tool for redistribution and reciprocity (Goody 1973, 1982). This primarily qualitative literature does offer cross-sectional descriptive measures of fostering, but does not provide a longitudinal account of experiences of parent absence from the perspective of the child. Second, the more recent literature examines the negative consequences of orphanhood on children as a result of the AIDS epidemic. Orphanhood is associated with a host of negative outcomes, including increased morbidity, higher mortality, lower educational attainment, and earlier sexual debut (Lindblade et al. 2003; Nakiyingi et al. 2005; Case, Paxson and Ableidinger 2004; Birdthistle et