IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/7dhqr.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Household structure in Ghana: Exploring dynamics over three decades

Author

Listed:
  • Ackah, Josephine Akua
  • Sear, Rebecca

    (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

  • McLean, Estelle
  • Awusabo-Asare, Kofi
  • Hassan, Anushé
  • Achana, Fabian Sebastian
  • Walters, Sarah

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The nuclear convergence hypothesis proposes that development and urbanisation lead to increasing proportions of nuclear families. We explore this hypothesis in Ghana by charting household living arrangements as captured in censuses and surveys. OBJECTIVE: To classify household structure in Ghana and track trends to test whether households converge towards nucleation during processes of development and urbanisation. METHODS: We employ two methods of classification – manual and data driven (latent class analysis) – to create household structures using Ghana’s censuses (1984-2021) and Demographic and Health Surveys (1993-2022). We explore trends over time and compare urban and rural areas to track nuclear convergence while documenting the differences and similarities between data sources and methods of classification. RESULTS: We find that though the manual and data-driven approaches produce similar results, the latter is vulnerable to possible misclassification. From the manual approach, we identify seven different typologies of household structure in Ghana and find that on average, a substantial proportion are core nuclear (couple with children only), other extended (non-multigenerational) and single member households. Overall, our findings deviate from the nuclear convergence hypothesis. There has not been a significant shift in the distribution of household types and in urban areas, there is a growing proportion of multigenerational households. We also observe that the surveys provide more reliable evidence on trends than the censuses. CONTRIBUTION: There is no strong evidence to support nuclear convergence in Ghana. We make a methodological contribution, highlighting that the use of data-driven methods for household classification needs to be approached with caution.

Suggested Citation

  • Ackah, Josephine Akua & Sear, Rebecca & McLean, Estelle & Awusabo-Asare, Kofi & Hassan, Anushé & Achana, Fabian Sebastian & Walters, Sarah, 2025. "Household structure in Ghana: Exploring dynamics over three decades," OSF Preprints 7dhqr, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:7dhqr
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/7dhqr
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/678112a6a6f78a9092796ea9/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/7dhqr?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arland Thornton, 2001. "The developmental paradigm, reading history sideways, and family change," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 38(4), pages 449-465, November.
    2. Sangeetha Madhavan & Mark Collinson & Tyler W. Myroniuk & Randall Kuhn, 2017. "Household structure vs. composition: Understanding gendered effects on educational progress in rural South Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(59), pages 1891-1916.
    3. Curtis Huffman & Delfino Vargas Chanes & Ricardo Regules-García, 2019. "Living arrangement dynamics of older adults in Mexico: Latent class analysis in an accelerated longitudinal design," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 41(50), pages 1401-1436.
    4. Cuccaro-Alamin, Stephanie & Eastman, Andrea Lane & Foust, Regan & McCroskey, Jacquelyn & Nghiem, Huy Tran & Putnam-Hornstein, Emily, 2021. "Strategies for constructing household and family units with linked administrative records," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    5. Edward Kutsoati & Randall Morck, 2014. "Family Ties, Inheritance Rights, and Successful Poverty Alleviation: Evidence from Ghana," NBER Chapters, in: African Successes, Volume II: Human Capital, pages 215-252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ackah, Josephine Akua & Sear, Rebecca & McLean, Estelle & Awusabo-Asare, Kofi & Hassan, Anushé & Achana, Fabian Sebastian & Walters, Sarah, 2025. "Household structure in Ghana: Exploring dynamics over three decades," OSF Preprints 7dhqr_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Sophie Hedges & David W. Lawson & Jim Todd & Mark Urassa & Rebecca Sear, 2019. "Sharing the Load: How Do Coresident Children Influence the Allocation of Work and Schooling in Northwestern Tanzania?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(5), pages 1931-1956, October.
    3. Serap Kavas & Ayse Gunduz-Hosgor, 2010. "Divorce and family change revisited: professional women’s divorce experience in Turkey," Demográfia English Edition, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute, vol. 53(5), pages 102-126.
    4. Vida Maralani, 2008. "The changing relationship between family size and educational attainment over the course of socioeconomic development: Evidence from Indonesia," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 45(3), pages 693-717, August.
    5. Farma Mangunsong, 2020. "A Decomposition Analysis of Fertility: Evidence from DKI Jakarta and East Nusa Tenggara," Economics and Finance in Indonesia, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, vol. 66, pages 79-96, Desember.
    6. Arland Thornton & Prem Bhandari & Jeffrey Swindle & Nathalie Williams & Linda Young-DeMarco & Cathy Sun & Christina Hughes, 2020. "Fatalistic Beliefs and Migration Behaviors: A Study of Ideational Demography in Nepal," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(4), pages 643-670, August.
    7. Lynn Jamieson, 2011. "Intimacy as a Concept: Explaining Social Change in the Context of Globalisation or Another Form of Ethnocentricism?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(4), pages 151-163, December.
    8. Keera Allendorf & Arland Thornton & Dirgha J. Ghimire & Linda Young-DeMarco & Colter Mitchell, 2021. "A Good Age to Marry? An Intergenerational Model of the Influence of Timing Attitudes on Entrance into Marriage," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(1), pages 179-209, March.
    9. Brown, John C. & Guinnane, Timothy W., 2003. "Two Statistical Problems in the Princeton Project on the European Fertility Transition," Center Discussion Papers 28392, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    10. Tarun Jain, 2014. "Where There Is a Will: Fertility Behavior and Sex Bias in Large Families," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(2), pages 393-423.
    11. Tenkorang, Eric Y., 2024. "Kinship, lineage resources (wealth flow transfers), and intimate partner violence among women in Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 354(C).
    12. Joseph Potter & Carl Schmertmann & Suzana Cavenaghi, 2002. "Fertility and development: evidence from Brazil," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 39(4), pages 739-761, November.
    13. Mohammad Jalal Abbasi Shavazi & Arland Thornton & Abbas Askari Nodoushan, 2012. "Family life and developmental idealism in Yazd, Iran," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 26(10), pages 207-238.
    14. Francesco C. Billari & Chris Wilson, 2001. "Convergence towards diversity? Cohort dynamics in the transition to adulthood in contemporary Western Europe," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2001-039, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    15. Scott Yabiku & Sarah Schlabach, 2009. "Social Change and the Relationships Between Education and Employment," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 28(4), pages 533-549, August.
    16. Arland Thornton & Rachael Pierotti & Linda Young-DeMarco & Susan Watkins, 2014. "Developmental Idealism and Cultural Models of the Family in Malawi," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(5), pages 693-716, October.
    17. Helen Baykara-Krumme, 2016. "Consanguineous Marriage in Turkish Families in Turkey and in Western Europe," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 568-598, September.
    18. Henderson, Morgan & Whatley, Warren, 2014. "Pacification and Gender in Colonial Africa: Evidence from the Ethnographic Atlas," MPRA Paper 61203, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. David P. Baker & William C. Smith & Ismael G. Muñoz & Haram Jeon & Tian Fu & Juan Leon & Daniel Salinas & Renata Horvatek, 2017. "The Population Education Transition Curve: Education Gradients Across Population Exposure to New Health Risks," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(5), pages 1873-1895, October.
    20. Albert Esteve & David S. Reher & Rocío Treviño & Pilar Zueras & Anna Turu, 2020. "Living Alone over the Life Course: Cross‐National Variations on an Emerging Issue," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(1), pages 169-189, March.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:osf:osfxxx:7dhqr. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    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.