'Absent breadwinners': Father-child connections and paternal support in Rural South Africa

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 34, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 647-663

  Madhavan, Sangeetha ^a   Townsend, Nicholas W ^b   Garey, Anita I ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

^b BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FINANCIAL PROVISION; HOUSEHOLD INCOME; HOUSEHOLD STRUCTURE; PATERNAL CARE; PATERNITY; RURAL AREA; RURAL SOCIETY;

AFRICA; MPUMALANGA; SOUTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA;

EID: 50449108086     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070802259902     Document Type: Article

References (42)

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2. L. Richter and R. Morrell, 'Introduction', in L. Richter and R. Morrell (eds), Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2006), p. 6.
3. South African social scientists, including many of the contributors to Baba, of course recognise that co-residence is a factor in abuse and infection as well as in support. For example, A. Dawes, Z. de Sas Kropiwnicki, Z. Kafaar and L. Richter, 'Partner Violence', in U. Pillay, B. Roberts and S. Rule (eds), South African Social Attitudes: Changing Times, Diverse Voices (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2006), pp. 225-51
4. L. Richter, A. Dawes and C.C. Higson-Smith (eds), Sexual Abuse of Young Children in Southern Africa (Cape Town, HSRC Press, 2004).
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8. N. Landale and R.S. Oropesa, 'Father Involvement in the Lives of Mainland Puerto Rican Children: Contributions of Nonresident, Cohabiting and Married Fathers', Social Forces, 79 (2001), pp. 945-68.
9. P.R. Amato and J.G. Gilbreth, 'Nonresident Fathers and Children's Well-Being: A Meta-Analysis', Journal of Marriage and Family, 61 (1999), pp. 557-73
10. R.D. Day, C. Lewis, M. O'Brien, and M.E. Lamb, 'Fatherhood and Father Involvement: Emerging Constructs and Theoretical Orientations', in V.L. Bengtson, A.C. Acock, K.R. Allen, P. Dilworth-Anderson and D.M. Klein (eds), Sourcebook of Family Theory & Research (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 2005), pp. 341-51
11. N.W. Townsend, 'Male Fertility as a Lifetime of Relationships: Contextualising Men's Biological Reproduction in Botswana', in C. Bledsoe, S. Lerner, and J.I. Guyer (eds), Fertility and the Male Life Cycle in the Era of Fertility Decline (New York, Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 343-64.
12. Day, Lewis, O'Brien and Lamb, 'Fatherhood and Father Involvement', p. 351.
13. C. Murray, Families Divided: The Impact of Migrant Labour in Lesotho (Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 1981)
14. N.W. Townsend, 'Men, Migration, and Households in Botswana: An Exploration of Connections Over Time and Space', Journal of Southern African Studies [hereafter JSAS], 23, 3 (September 1997), pp. 405-20.
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16. Murray, Families Divided
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19. A. Spiegel, 'Dispersing Dependants: A Response to the Exigencies of Labour Migration in Rural Transkei', in J. Eades (ed.), Migrants, Workers and the Social Order (London, Tavistock, 1987), pp. 113-29
20. A. Spiegel, F. Ross and D. Wilkinson, 'Domestic Fluidity in Die Bos', Social Dynamics, 22,1 (1996), pp. 55-71
21. N.W. Townsend, 'Men, Migration, and Households in Botswana: An Exploration of Connections Over Time and Space', JSAS, 23 (1997), pp. 405-20.
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25. All names are pseudonyms.
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27. S.M. Tollman, K. Herbst and M. Garenne, The Agincourt Demographic and Health Study: Phase I (Johannesburg, South Africa, University of the Witwatersrand, Department of Community Health, 1995).
28. We did not include households headed by refugees or recent immigrants from Mozambique among our 12 initial households because their legal and economic situations are different from those of the native-born population. None of the contact groups included such households.
29. In this analysis we omitted the 25 children whose fathers were known to be dead in 2001, but retained children who had no contact with their fathers. Paternal death is certainly momentous for children, but it distorts the lifecourse picture of father-child relationships that is the focus of interest for this analysis. We recognise that some of the fathers with whom children have no contact may be dead, but for those children the loss of contact, not the subsequent death, was the crucial break in their relationship with their fathers. As a result of this restriction, the analyses in this article are conducted on 272 children aged 0-20 living in 83 residential households in 12 contact groups of between four and nine linked households each.
30. It was relatively straightforward, although time-consuming, to record a single child's history. Nearly all children had, however, lived with other children for some or all of their lives and we were determined to achieve both accuracy and consistency in all their histories. Thus, if the record for child A showed that in a particular year child A was living with children X, Y and Z, then the records for that year should show these children all living with child A and all living with each other. The reconciliation was a formidable undertaking but was worth the effort, not only because it improved the accuracy of our records but also because it brought to light many complications of residence, support, and movement that contributed to our understanding of children's lives.
31. We did not usually ask these questions as they are written here but rather made sure that we recorded the information we needed to answer them to our own satisfaction. If, for instance, a woman said that her husband had provided all the support for all their children since they moved to their own stand in 1988, and other people corroborated this, then we did not ask about each child and each year from 1988 to 2002.
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34. See special issue of JSAS, Changing Livelihoods, 28 (2002) and particularly articles by C. Murray, 'Livelihoods Research: Transcending Boundaries of Time and Space', pp. 489-509
35. and R. Slater, 'Differentiation and Diversification: Changing Livelihoods in Qwaqwa, South Africa, 1970-2000', pp. 599-614.
36. Murray, 'Livelihoods Research'.
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41. G. Cadavid, 'Who Benefits from Remittances in South Africa? A Look at the Demographic Characteristics of Households' (Working Paper, Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan, Institute of Social Research, 2004)
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