Abstract
Children rely on support from parental helpers (alloparents), perhaps especially in high-needs contexts. Considerable evidence indicates that closer relatives and maternal relatives are the most likely to provide this care, as inclusive fitness theory suggests, but whether this is equally true across different family types and in culturally patrilocal societies requires investigation. This structured interview study (N = 208 respondents with 323 dependent children) focuses on who helps raise children in rural Bangladesh after the father’s or mother’s death, or divorce, in comparison to families with both parents present or the father temporarily a migrant laborer. Family types differed in where and with whom children resided, who served as their primary and secondary caregivers, and who provided material support, but mother’s kin played a major role, and were the primary providers of material resources from outside the child’s household in all family types. Despite the patrilineal ideology, only one-quarter of children of divorce lived with the father or his family, and even after the death of the mother, only 59% remained with father or other paternal kin. Household income varied by family type and was a strong predictor of child height and weight. The children of deceased mothers moved between successive caregivers especially frequently, and were uniquely likely to have no schooling. The typology of Bangladeshi society as patrilocal obscures the extent to which matrilateral family support children’s well-being.
Highlights
While many studies have focused on the effects of losing either a mother or a father on child outcomes, few have compared intact, mother-deceased, father-deceased, and divorced families in a single study
By the inclusion of all five family types, attention is drawn to how family disruption type affects children, and it is anticipated that these may be mediated by differences in the contributions of alloparents
The present study focuses on who provides primary care and alloparental assistance in intact and non-intact families, as well as on associated child outcomes
Summary
While many studies have focused on the effects of losing either a mother or a father on child outcomes, few have compared intact (two-parent and father away for migrant labor), mother-deceased, father-deceased, and divorced families in a single study. Substantial numbers of Bangladeshi children are being raised in each of these five family types, which are judged more or less approvingly or pejoratively by the larger society. By utilizing human behavioral ecology (HBE), the importance of the ecological conditions (post-marital residence patterns and family type) and cultural variation in parenting allows for more refined and focused hypotheses and interpretations of the data. Human beings have been called “cooperative breeders” because parents rely heavily on alloparental support in the form of both direct childcare and material investments Alloparents are usually relatives, presumably because only kin gain indirect fitness from costly contributions (Emlen 1995). Which relatives provide alloparental investment, under what circumstances, and with what effects on children? Which relatives provide alloparental investment, under what circumstances, and with what effects on children? These questions have inspired considerable discussion
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