Dissertation Research: Socio-Ecology of Children's Provisioning Behavior in a Marginal Urban Environment

随着全球现代化和城市化，现在大多数儿童生活在城市，许多儿童处于极端贫困之中。许多生活在城市贫困中的幼儿必须为自己或他人工作、交易、拾荒或乞讨食物和钱。虽然这种行为在美国被认为是不合适的，但在其他一些国家，这是一种生活方式。这个由文化人类学家撰写的论文项目探讨了在极端城市贫困的条件下，这些活动如何影响儿童的健康和成长。通过工作、乞讨或拾破烂来为自己提供食物或金钱的儿童实际上可能有更好的营养和健康，特别是如果他们不必分享他们努力的结果。这项研究将在墨西哥的哈拉帕市进行，对110名8至12岁的儿童进行抽样调查。了解儿童如何在身体上和社会上应对城市生活的压力，对改善儿童健康和成长、制定政策、为城市穷人提供适当和有效的服务都有影响。该项目产生的新知识将对当地产生具体影响。这项研究是与墨西哥从事贫困儿童工作的非政府组织合作设计的，他们打算利用研究结果改进为城市贫困人口提供的服务的设计和提供。此外，该项目将促进对一名年轻医学人类学家的培训和实地研究经验。

With global modernization and urbanization, the majority of children now live in cities, many in extreme poverty. Many young children living in urban poverty must work, trade, scavenge, or beg for food and money for themselves or others. While such activities are considered inappropriate in the United States, in some other countries it is a way of life. This dissertation project by a cultural anthropologist explores how such activities influence children's health and growth under conditions of extreme urban poverty. Children who provide food or money for themselves through working, begging, or scavenging may actually have better nutrition and health, especially if they do not have to share the results of their efforts. The study will take place in the city of Xalapa, Mexico, using a sample of 110 children living at home between the ages of 8 and 12. Understanding how children cope, physically and socially, with the stressors of urban life has implications for improving child health and growth, for policy development, for the provision of appropriate and effective services for the urban poor. The new knowledge produced by the project will have specific local impacts. The research was designed in collaboration with NGOs who work with children in poverty in Mexico, and they intend to use the results to improve design and delivery of services to the urban poor. In addition, this project will promote training and experience in field research for a young medical anthropologist.