Department of Sociology, University of Southern California, 851 Downey Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90089-1059, USA.
Demography. 2020 Apr;57(2):445-473. doi: 10.1007/s13524-019-00854-7.
The long arm of childhood, with its wide-ranging influence on individuals' life chances, highlights the importance of understanding the determinants of health in early life. Research has established that parents' education is a major determinant of childhood health, but children across the globe increasingly experience their parents' divorce and subsequent remarriage, raising questions of whether union instability alters these intergenerational processes. Does divorce and remarriage interfere with parents' education benefiting their young children's health? I explore this question in sub-Saharan Africa, a world region where parents' education plays a major role in protecting children against severe health risks, and where young children commonly experience parental divorce and remarriage. Moreover, sub-Saharan Africa features distinct family lineage systems, affording an opportunity to explore this question in both majority matrilineal and patrilineal contexts. Analyses of Demographic and Health Survey data on 271,292 children in 30 sub-Saharan African countries offer no evidence that the high levels of union instability in the region will weaken the health benefits of parents' education for future generations. Following divorce, children benefit from their biological parents' education to the same degree as children with married parents-a finding that is consistent across lineage contexts. Moreover, stepfathers' education corresponds with pronounced health benefits for their coresident stepchildren, particularly in patrilineal regions where these children benefit less dramatically from their mothers' education. Together, the study results offer a renewed sense of the importance of parents'-including stepfathers'-education for early childhood health across diverse family structures.
儿童时期的深远影响，及其对个人生活机会的广泛影响，突显了理解生命早期健康决定因素的重要性。研究已经证实，父母的教育是儿童健康的主要决定因素，但全球各地的儿童越来越多地经历父母离婚和随后的再婚，这引发了一个问题，即婚姻不稳定是否会改变这些代际过程。离婚和再婚是否会干扰父母教育对其年幼子女健康的益处？我在撒哈拉以南非洲地区探索了这个问题，该地区父母的教育在保护儿童免受严重健康风险方面起着重要作用，而且年幼的儿童经常经历父母离婚和再婚。此外，撒哈拉以南非洲地区有独特的家族谱系制度，这为在多数母系和父系背景下探索这个问题提供了机会。对 30 个撒哈拉以南非洲国家的 271292 名儿童进行的人口与健康调查数据的分析没有表明该地区高水平的婚姻不稳定将削弱父母教育对后代健康的益处。离婚后，儿童从亲生父母的教育中受益的程度与有已婚父母的儿童相同——这一发现在谱系背景下是一致的。此外，继父的教育与他们共同居住的继子女的显著健康益处相对应，尤其是在父系地区，这些孩子从母亲的教育中受益程度较低。总之，研究结果提供了一个新的认识，即父母——包括继父——的教育对不同家庭结构中幼儿健康的重要性。
