Department of Sociology, Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA,
Demography. 2014 Feb;51(1):205-28. doi: 10.1007/s13524-013-0239-8.
Despite the frequency of divorce and remarriage across much of sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about what these events mean for the living arrangements of children. We use longitudinal data from rural Malawi to examine the effects of family transitions on the prevalence and incidence of child fostering, or children residing apart from their living parents. We find that between 7 % and 15 % of children aged 3-14 are out-fostered over the two-year intersurvey period. Although divorce appears to be a significant driver of child fostering in the cross-sectional analysis, it is not significantly associated with the incidence of out-fostering. In contrast, maternal remarriage has both a lagged and an immediate effect on the incidence of out-fostering. Furthermore, the likelihood of out-fostering is even higher among children whose mother remarried and had a new child during the intersurvey period. Using longitudinal data collected from living mothers rather than from children's current foster homes offers new insights into the reasons children are sent to live with others besides their parents.
尽管在撒哈拉以南非洲的大部分地区，离婚和再婚的频率很高，但人们对这些事件对儿童生活安排意味着什么知之甚少。我们使用马拉维农村的纵向数据，研究家庭变迁对儿童寄养（即与亲生父母分开居住的儿童）流行率和发生率的影响。我们发现，在两年的调查期间，3-14 岁的儿童中有 7%至 15%被寄养。尽管离婚在横断面分析中似乎是儿童寄养的一个重要驱动因素，但它与寄养的发生率没有显著关联。相比之下，母亲再婚对寄养的发生率既有滞后效应，也有即时效应。此外，在调查期间母亲再婚并生育新子女的儿童，被寄养的可能性甚至更高。利用从在世母亲那里收集的纵向数据，而不是从儿童目前的寄养家庭收集数据，为儿童被送到父母以外的其他人那里生活的原因提供了新的见解。
