Children’s Caring Roles and Responsibilities within the Family in Africa

Abstract

In many Sub‐Saharan African countries, the care of chronically ill, disabled or elderly relatives is usually regarded as the responsibility of family members, within a broader landscape of often overburdened healthcare systems, the expense of medical fees, very limited access to social protection and policies that emphasise home‐based care. Recent studies have demonstrated that children and youth, particularly girls and young women, take on considerable caring roles for chronically ill and elderly and young relatives in Africa. This article reviews the available research on young people’s caring roles and responsibilities within families affected by chronic illness and disability in Sub‐Saharan Africa. I discuss how children’s caring roles challenge global and local constructions of childhood and suggest ways of conceptualising the socio‐spatial and embodied dimensions of children’s everyday care work within diverse household forms. I analyse evidence on outcomes of caring and children’s resilience in managing their caring responsibilities and examine the complex array of processes that influence whether children take on caring roles within the family. I argue that relational, intergenerational and lifecourse approaches to researching children’s caring responsibilities within the family have considerable potential for future geographical research and could provide further insights into the ways that care is embedded in social relationships, cultural norms and structural inequalities operating in different configurations in particular places.

Sibling caringscapes: Time–space practices of caring within youth-headed households in Tanzania and Uganda

“…However, younger siblings spent considerable amounts of time undertaking household chores (girls even reported spending slightly more time than their older sisters) and self care activities. For younger siblings, the category of 'community engagement' included playing and spending time with friends, which older siblings reported was more limited for them- Table 2 Young people's activities in youth-headed households (see also Evans, 2010 Maintaining social networks, seeking support from and cooperating with others, participating in neighbourhood, school, faith community, youth and NGO meetings, activities and events, playing and spending time with friends selves; 'community engagement' for them represented predominantly time spent seeking support from others and going to the church/mosque. Older and younger boys reported spending longer in community engagement activities outside the household compared to girls, reflecting conventional gender norms about the use of public and private space and boys' and young men's greater spatial mobility and freedom to engage with the wider environment (Katz, 1993).…”

“…Comparative research with children caring for parents with HIV has revealed that children undertake broadly similar caring roles in the majority and minority worlds, although the nature of caring tasks and the time taken to perform them differs due to disparities in living standards, basic services and infrastructure (Bauman et al, 2006;Evans and Becker, 2009). Children's caring roles include supporting family members with healthcare, personal care, household chores, childcare and providing emotional and practical support (Evans, 2010). A key difference in the majority world is children's involvement in income earning activities as a replacement for the loss of a parent's/adult relative's income (Evans and Becker, 2009).…”

‘The sooner you can change their life course the better’: the time-framing of risks in relationship to being a young carer

“…The psychological template of fixed developmental stages generates a culturally unreflective narrative about the essential nature of childhood (O'Dell et al, 2010) which is contradicted by belief systems prevalent in non-Western societies such as those of subSaharan Africa (Evans, 2010;Becker, 2007) where children and young people commonly take on caring and other roles v . The prevailing cultural template of childhood in rich societies has generated a sense that caring at 'too early' an age puts young people at risk.…”

Intergenerational care for and by children: Examining reciprocity through focus group interviews with older adults in rural Uganda

“…Grandmothers and aunts, in particular, but also grandfathers and uncles, often contribute extensively to children's many needs (Akintola 2004(Akintola , 2008Schatz and Seeley 2015). At the same time young people, perhaps particularly girls, contribute to their households and provide care to older persons (Evans 2010). Yet, little is known about the impact on children's wellbeing of their simultaneous receipt and provision of care from and to the older generation.…”