Little evidence that nonmonogamous family structures are detrimental to children’s well-being in Mpimbwe, Tanzania

IF 9.4 1区 综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES
Riana Minocher, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Cody T. Ross
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Nuclear family structures are often thought to be essential for the well-being of children. Divorce, the loss of either biological parent, the presence of step-parents, and the practice of polygynous marriage have all been claimed to negatively impact child well-being. However, empirical research on these topics has been limited by the routine use of cross-regional and cross-sectional databases. Cross-regional data render research vulnerable to the ecological inference fallacy, and cross-sectional data prevent assessment of age-specific impacts of time-varying family-structure variables. When longitudinal data are available, they tend to be drawn from Western/urban contexts. Detailed data on family structure and children’s well-being are rarely collected in more marginalized communities. In many rural and traditional communities, nonnuclear family structures are indeed prevalent and viewed as socially permissible—and, as such, may have different impacts on children’s well-being than in Western contexts. Here, we draw on a detailed, longitudinal dataset from a 20-y prospective study in rural Tanzania, where polygyny and serial monogamy are common. We analyze survival outcomes for 3,693 children born between 1931 and 2014, growth outcomes for 881 children born between 1976 and 2014, and educational outcomes for 1,370 children born between 1976 and 2014. Our analyses indicate that monogamous marriage is not consistently associated with better outcomes for children—contrary to some popular and public health perspectives on human family structure.
在坦桑尼亚的Mpimbwe,几乎没有证据表明非一夫一妻制的家庭结构对儿童的福祉有害
核心家庭结构通常被认为对儿童的福祉至关重要。离婚、失去生父或生母、继父母的存在以及一夫多妻制婚姻都被认为会对儿童的福祉产生负面影响。然而,对这些问题的实证研究一直受限于跨地区和跨部门数据库的常规使用。跨地区数据使研究容易受到生态推论谬误的影响,而横截面数据则妨碍了对随时间变化的家庭结构变量对特定年龄的影响进行评估。在有纵向数据的情况下,这些数据往往来自西方国家/城市。在较边缘化的社区,很少收集到有关家庭结构和儿童福祉的详细数据。在许多农村和传统社区,非核心家庭结构确实很普遍,并被视为社会所允许的,因此,对儿童福祉的影响可能与西方社区不同。在坦桑尼亚农村,一夫多妻制和连续一夫一妻制都很普遍,在这里,我们利用了一项为期 20 年的前瞻性研究中的详细纵向数据集。我们分析了 1931 年至 2014 年间出生的 3,693 名儿童的生存结果、1976 年至 2014 年间出生的 881 名儿童的成长结果以及 1976 年至 2014 年间出生的 1,370 名儿童的教育结果。我们的分析表明,一夫一妻制婚姻并不总是与儿童的更好结果相关--这与一些关于人类家庭结构的流行观点和公共健康观点相反。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
19.00
自引率
0.90%
发文量
3575
审稿时长
2.5 months
期刊介绍: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer-reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), serves as an authoritative source for high-impact, original research across the biological, physical, and social sciences. With a global scope, the journal welcomes submissions from researchers worldwide, making it an inclusive platform for advancing scientific knowledge.
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