Who Cares for Children? A Descriptive Study of Care-Related Data Available Through Global Household Surveys and How These Could Be Better Mined to Inform Policies and Services to Strengthen Family Care

Abstract

There has been increasing recognition that the diversity and dynamic nature of family composition, structure, and living arrangements are intimately related to the key factors that support children's care and well-being and should be central to informing social policies and programs targeted to vulnerable children and their caregivers. The critical role of extended family has been recognized as key in efforts to strengthen family care for children. This paper argues that better use and mining of existing national household surveys, particularly the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys (MICS), has great potential to inform child protection policy and programming. Important data that pertains to children's care and living arrangements are not extracted and presented in national reports, resulting in poor awareness of this information among child protection practitioners and policy makers. As a result, this potential is not currently being realized. To illustrate the strengths of the care-related information available through these datasets, we have conducted an analysis on orphanhood and living arrangements data based on available DHS and MICS surveys from 77 countries from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North Africa/West Asia/and Europe, Central Asia, and South and Southeast Asia. The paper presents some of the strengths and weaknesses of the data currently collected and identifies areas for better information use and accessibility.

Relationship Between Orphanhood Status, Living Arrangements and Sexual Debut: Evidence From Females in Middle Adolescence in Southern Africa

“…Although the data were from a relatively short interval between 2006 and 2014, the period saw dramatic changes in adult mortality levels, so orphanhood prevalence across countries should be understood in the context of adult mortality levels at the different reference periods for the data used in the study. Parental absence was also high and, consistent with research by Martin and Zulaika (2016) and Monasch and Boerma (2004), could not be explained completely by orphanhood. A substantial number of female adolescents had initiated sexual activityjust over 10% to 40% of the female adolescents had had their sexual debut.…”

Data-informed recommendations for services providers working with vulnerable children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Further, vulnerable children may live in multi-generational or skipped generation households ( Ingersoll-Dayton, Punpuing, Tangchonlatip, & Yakas, 2018 ). For children outside of parental care, the most frequent placement setting is with extended family, often with older relatives ( Martin & Zulaika, 2016 ). Research suggests older populations are at greater risk for more severe symptoms or even death from COVID-19 ( Liu, Chen, Lin, & Han, 2020 ).…”

An Evaluation Methodology for Measuring the Long-Term Impact of Family Strengthening and Alternative Child Care Services: The Case of Sos Children’s Villages

“…Such evidence is lacking for the two social services that are the focus of this article: family strengthening and alternative child care. Regarding the latter, there is a stark lack of data on the numbers and circumstances of children in the various forms of alternative care around the world, and especially in low-and middle-income countries (Better Care Network & UNICEF, 2009;Desmond et al, 2020;Martin & Zulaika, 2016;Nowak, 2019;Petrowski et al, 2017). Because sector-wide consensus definitions of the different care settings (e.g., residential care, institutional care, foster care, small group homes) are lacking (Cantwell et al, 2012), terms are often used interchangeably and inconsistently.…”