IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/apandp/v114y2024p449-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Family Structure and Childcare in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Aletheia Donald
  • Sara Lowes
  • Julia Vaillant

Abstract

Extended family members can help women with childcare. Using data from 32 sub-Saharan African countries, we find that the prevalence of nuclear families relative to extended families is increasing over time. The overall share of nuclear families is 56 percent and is higher in rural areas. We then use detailed time-use data on childcare provision from 110 rural villages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We find that while women do receive childcare assistance from their extended family, they provide 84 percent of childcare hours. These results highlight the need for formal childcare provision, particularly in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Aletheia Donald & Sara Lowes & Julia Vaillant, 2024. "Family Structure and Childcare in Sub-Saharan Africa," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 114, pages 449-453, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:114:y:2024:p:449-53
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20241012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20241012
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E201866V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20241012.ds
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pandp.20241012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • O18 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Urban, Rural, Regional, and Transportation Analysis; Housing; Infrastructure

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:114:y:2024:p:449-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.