Polygynous family system, neighbourhood contexts and under-five mortality in sub-Saharan Africa
Sunday A. Adedini and
Clifford Odimegwu
Development Southern Africa, 2017, vol. 34, issue 6, 704-720
Abstract:
Based on the competing theories regarding the relationship between family structure and child health outcomes, this article examined the effects of polygynous family system (PFS) on under-five mortality (U5M) across different socio-economic and neighbourhood contexts in selected sub-Saharan African countries. Cox proportional regression analysis was performed on pooled data of children (n = 54 842) born in the five years before the Demographic and Health Surveys of selected countries. Results indicated differential effects of PFS on U5M across varying contexts, because risks of U5M were significantly higher for children of polygynous mothers in poor communities (hazard ratio: 2.98, 95% confidence interval: 2.23 to 3.95, p < 0.001) and children of monogamists in poor communities (hazard ratio: 2.24, 95% confidence interval: 1.69 to 2.98, p < 0.001) compared with the children of monogamists in rich communities. Given the worsening effects of polygyny on childhood survival across different contexts, this study stressed the need for marriage reforms and enforcement of a monogamous family system if significant U5M reduction would be achieved in sub-Saharan African countries during the post-2015 development era.
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0376835X.2017.1310030 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:deveza:v:34:y:2017:i:6:p:704-720
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CDSA20
DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2017.1310030
Access Statistics for this article
Development Southern Africa is currently edited by Marie Kirsten
More articles in Development Southern Africa from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().