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

发展中国家儿童的复原力或脆弱性是许多因素的结果，而不仅仅是收入和经济发展的简单衡量标准。这项研究涉及一位文化人类学家兼人口学家，他研究了南非北部农村12岁以下儿童的复杂社会地位，以确定有助于他们幸福的社会因素。该项目将侧重于家庭和社区之间的第三级社会组织，包括连接不同家庭成员的社会联系、通过这些联系的资源、服务和援助的流动。该项目以阿金库尔卫生和人口方案进行的六年年度人口和健康调查数据为基础。这位研究人员和他的南非合作者对不同社区的12组家庭进行了为期三个月的密集田野调查，并分析了六年来6.7万人的数据，他们将检验这样的假设，即社交网络是这些人口中儿童福利至关重要的资源。这一新知识将对发展中国家的卫生规划者有用，并将允许修改未来的人口普查和调查问题，以确定重要的社会关系。此外，该项目还将阐明儿童福利和社会网络的一般原则，这些原则可用于在其他研究地点制定针对具体情况的社会联系指标。

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.