DYNAMICS of CHILD-PARENT CO-RESIDENCE in SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Ben Malinga John , University of Malawi
Maria Pohl, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

The duration children spend living with their parents is crucial for understanding how parental absence shapes well-being and human capital accumulation. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a growing body of literature has documented heterogeneous household contexts of children across countries and over time, with many children experiencing temporary or permanent absence of one or both biological parents. Yet little is known about the expected length of parent-child co-residence and the time children spend in different household contexts. We use the Global Living Arrangements Database and DHS data to address this gap by providing the first estimates of expected years of parent-child co-residence during childhood across the region. We examine changes in the years children spend living with and without their parents and assess whether parental absence is driven by marital dissolution or parental death. Preliminary results reveal substantial cross-country variation, highlighting the roles of marital dissolution and mortality in shaping these dynamics.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session P2. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 2