Polygyny as a Predictor of Child Mortality

在西非马里的多贡人中，20%的儿童在出生后第一年死亡，近50%的儿童活不过5岁。对这一死亡率原因的初步研究表明，如果他们的父母和近亲是一夫一妻制而不是一夫多妻制，那么他们的孩子（N = 176）更有可能存活下来。该项目的目标是双重的：(1)验证婚姻状况仍然是儿童生存的一个预测因素，在1000多名儿童的更大样本中，年龄在0到5岁之间，每个人都将被前瞻性监测至少两年，(2)测试家庭结构和儿童死亡率之间关系的原因的其他解释。这些解释集中在父亲对孩子投入的差异、共同妻子之间的竞争、一夫多妻家庭中资源的稀释以及女性的地位。本研究的结果将对撒哈拉以南非洲地区的儿童死亡率问题具有实际意义。它们也可能有助于其他关于贫困儿童的研究。

Among the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, 20% of children die in their first year of life and nearly 50% do not survive to age five years. A preliminary study of the causes of this mortality toll has shown that children (N = 176) are significantly more likely to survive if their parents and close paternal relatives are monogamously rather than polygamously married. The goals of this project are twofold: (1) to verify that marital status remains a predictor of child survivorship in a larger sample of over 1000 children, age 0 to 5 years, each of whom will be prospectively monitored for at least two years, and (2) to test alternative explanations for the causes of the relationship between family structure and child mortality. These explanations focus on differences in paternal investment in children, competition among co-wives, the dilution of resources in polygamous families, and the status of women. The results of this study will have practical significance for the problem of child mortality in SubSaharan Africa. They may also help inform other studies of children in poverty.