Nonadult Supervision of Children in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Results from 61 National Population-Based Surveys

Mónica Ruiz-Casares, José Ignacio Nazif-Muñoz, René Iwo and Youssef Oulhote
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Mónica Ruiz-Casares: Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, and SHERPA-Institut Universitaire, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC H1T 2M4, Canada
José Ignacio Nazif-Muñoz: Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A3, Canada
René Iwo: Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A3, Canada
Youssef Oulhote: Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-27

Abstract: Despite scarce empirical research in most countries, evidence has shown that young children are unsupervised or under the supervision of another young child while their adult caregivers attend work or engage in other activities outside the home. Lack of quality supervision has been linked to unintentional childhood injuries and other negative outcomes. Nationally representative, population-based data from rounds four and five of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and four to eight of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 61 low- and middle-income countries were used to estimate prevalence and socio-economic factors associated with leaving children under five years old home alone or under the care of another child younger than 10 years of age. Socio-economic factors included age and sex of the child, rurality, wealth, maternal education, and household composition. Large variations in the prevalence rates (0.1–35.3% for children home alone and 0.2–50.6% for children supervised by another child) and associated factors have been recorded within and across regions and countries. Understanding why and under what conditions children are home alone or under the supervision of another child is crucial to the development of suitable policies and interventions to protect young children, promote healthy growth, and support caregivers.

Keywords: child supervision; home alone; low- and middle-income countries; Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS); Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:8:p:1564-:d:159645

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