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Childhood and Parenthood Dynamics in rural Africa – DyPE

Dynamics of parenthood and childhood in rural Africa

The DyPE project on the dynamics of parenthood and childhood in rural Africa aims to extend knowledge of attitudes towards children in rural Africa, with emphasis on the social and demographic dynamics which shape and/or modify these attitudes.

Objectives

The project analyses trends in children's family network and the influence of family environnement on children's care and well-being, in rural Western Africa. <br />The project focuses, in particular, on the dynamics resulting from the emergence of new models of socialization and their confrontation with existing models, and on their effects in terms of progress, but also of social inequality.

The project is founded on an important methodological choice, namely to focus analysis on a specific population in south-eastern rural Mali which has been monitored for more than 20 years and whose attitudes to children and their evolution over time can be examined in detail, with the necessary historical background data and using an appropriate set of conceptual instruments.

The first task will be to identify the factors of change in children's relational environment in a context of demographic transition. The second task will then be to understand the modes of diffusion of new attitudes towards children. Last, the project will examine public discourse, representations and personal experience, to understand how the parenting role is constructed in a context of increasingly diverse approaches to childhood.

The originality and the diversity of the data on this specific population allow us to tackle questions that are hardly possible to approach with standard data. The project allows interfaces with the existing statistical operations, in particular by confronting methodologically standardised indicators on the housesholds produced by usual surveys.

In addition to its academic results, the project will provide tools for the actors of development, by offering new material for debate and practical action, but also by identifying potential new modes of intervention to the benefit of children.

The DyPE project on the dynamics of parenthood and childhood in rural Africa aims to extend knowledge of attitudes towards children in rural Africa, with emphasis on the social and demographic dynamics which shape and/or modify these attitudes. It focuses, in particular, on the dynamics resulting from the emergence of new models of socialization and their confrontation with existing models, and on their effects in terms of progress, but also of social inequality. The project is founded on an important methodological choice, namely to focus analysis on a specific population in south-eastern rural Mali which has been monitored for more than 20 years and whose attitudes to children and their evolution over time can be examined in detail, with the necessary historical background data and using an appropriate set of conceptual instruments. The programme is based on an existing corpus of data providing detailed information on the family and on demographic dynamics in rural Mali, but which has never been analysed in relation to the status of children. The first task will be to identify the factors of change in children's relational environment in a context of demographic transition: with whom do children grow up? Relationship networks will be described in terms of three different dimensions: 1) the kinship network comprising living persons who are related to ego, 2) the domestic group which shares economic resources and 3), the dwelling, the residential space where most daily interactions take place. Microsimulation techniques and descriptive statistical methods will be used to analyse census and survey data. The second task will then be to understand the modes of diffusion of new attitudes towards children. Do they depend upon the family context? Are they tending towards greater differentiation of treatment, or even towards new forms of inequality? Changes in attitudes towards children will be analysed using longitudinal data (life event history survey and repeat survey) matched against cross-sectional indicators, paying attention to four types of practice: health seeking behaviour, school attendance, registration of births and child mobility. Last, the project will examine public discourse, representations and personal experience, to understand how the parenting role is constructed in a context of increasingly diverse approaches to childhood. While the first two parts of the project involve factual analyses of change, this third part addresses the question of childhood and parenthood in terms of normative frameworks and a subjective approach to personal experience. Qualitative analysis methods will be used.
The originality and the diversity of the data on this specific population allow us to tackle questions that are hardly possible to approach with standard data. The project allows interfaces with the existing statistical operations, in particular by confronting methodologically standardised indicators on the housesholds produced by usual surveys. The project is built so that its results go beyond the local scale, by situating its specific advances in a wider regional context, and by communicating its methodological outputs to national and international survey designers. In addition to its academic results, the project will provide tools for the actors of development, by offering new material for debate and practical action, but also by identifying potential new modes of intervention to the benefit of children.

Project coordination

Véronique HERTRICH (Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques) – hertrich@ined.fr

The author of this summary is the project coordinator, who is responsible for the content of this summary. The ANR declines any responsibility as for its contents.

Partner

INED Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques

Help of the ANR 293,256 euros
Beginning and duration of the scientific project: November 2012 - 36 Months

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