Children's Well-Being and Social Connection in Rural South Africa

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0109916Townsend The resilience or vulnerability of children in developing countries is the outcome of many factors beyond a simple measure of income and economic development. This research involves a cultural anthropologist-demographer studying the complex social position of children under twelve in rural northern South Africa in order to identify the social factors contributing to their well-being. The project will concentrate on a third level of social organization, between households and the community, consisting of the social connections that link members of different households, the flows of resources, services and assistance across these connections. The project builds on six years of annual demographic and health survey data conducted by the Agincourt Health and Population Programme. Combining three months of intensive fieldwork in twelve groups of households in varying communities with analysis of data on 67,000 persons over six years, the researcher with his South African collaborators will test hypotheses that social networks are critically important resources for child welfare in this population. This new knowledge will be useful to health planners in the developing world, and will allow modifications of future censuses and survey questions to identify important social relationships. In addition the project will elucidate general principles of child welfare and social networks that could be used to develop situation-specific indicators of social connection in other research sites.