The timing of parental death in childhood and non-cognitive outcomes as a young adult

Rozana Himaz ()

No 2019-03, CSAE Working Paper Series from Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford

Abstract: This paper looks at how non-cognitive outcomes as a young adult aged 22 could be very different between orphans and non-orphans depending on the point in a child’s life course a parent died. The data comes from five rounds of survey data for around 6000 children collected from Ethiopia and India from 2002-2016. The paper uses the potential outcome framework to estimate results. It finds that in both countries losing a father in middle childhood (between ages 7-12) correlates with significantly negative non-cognitive outcomes at age 22 compared to non-orphans. This is in contrast to those who lost a father in early adolescence (ages 12-15) whose outcomes suggest positive adaptive behaviour. Country context matters as the results for India show a father dying between ages 15-22 also has a significant negative impact on outcomes at age 22. This is not the case for Ethiopia. A mother’s death has a negative impact on both schooling-related as well as non cognitive outcomes at age 22. The findings have important implications relevant to reducing potential inequalities arising due to orphanhood especially in the context of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 10 of ‘… promoting the social, economic and political inclusion of all’.

Keywords: Orphans; Non-cognitive outcomes; Africa; Ethiopia; Asia; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csa:wpaper:2019-03

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