This report examines the influence of parent’s migration status on childhood mortality in sending households in the South African rural sub-district of Agincourt. A survival analysis of a cohort of children born in Agincourt between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 2003 was conducted using the Cox proportional hazards model to estimate the influence of parent’s migration status on under-5 year mortality. Starting with a baseline census in 1992, the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance System (AHDSS) data are collected and updated every 12 months wherein fieldworkers visit each household at the site to record the vital events, including births, deaths, and migrations that occurred since the previous census. Results of the survival analysis show that children born in households where the father was a temporary migrant while the mother remained at the rural household had a 35% lower risk of death compared to children in households where both parents were non-migrant (RR=0.647, 95% CI 0.439-0.954). The results also reveal that, controlling for parent migration status, children in single-parent (mother only) households had about 28% higher death hazard than children in two-parent households (RR=1.284, 95% CI 0.936-1.673). The findings suggest that temporary labour migration could be a means to improving household incomes and quality of life for children, particularly where the father is a temporary migrant while the mother remains behind taking care of the children. At the same time, children whose fathers are not indicated appear to be worse off whether their parents are temporary migrants or not.

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Family is a unit of socialization and transmitter of social, cultural and economic resources. Thus family arrangements may result in unequal future outcomes for the children growing up in them. A case in point is children from single parent households. The aim of this study is to investigate whether children growing up in single parent households in Sweden experience growing disadvantages during the life course, compared to children from two-parent households, and if socioeconomic factors explain this association. Previous literature shows that children from single parent households are disadvantaged but few have investigated the long term effects of childhood household composition in Sweden and whether disadvantages grow over time.  Using Swedish representative, longitudinal data from Generations and Gender Survey round 2 (GGSII), individuals living in Sweden during childhood between ages 20 to 59 were observed during the years 1990 to 2019. With ordered logistic regression for each year, earnings trajectories could be analyzed, with semi-elasticities used for interpretation.  The results showed that respondents from single parent households fare worse in future earnings compared to respondents from two-parent household. This is explained by differences in educational attainment: children from single parent households have lower educational level which produce lower future earnings. The effect is statistically significant during several years after 2010, however, the results show no evidence of growing disadvantages. Socioeconomic background partially alter the association but not entirely. Whether socioeconomic background functions as a confounder or a mediator to the association has not been determined in this study but is an important task for future research in order to establish the causal nature of socioeconomic background in relation to childhood household composition and children’s future outcomes.

Using factors of low income, parents' levels of education, and family composition as determinants of educationally at-risk status, study investigated differences between first generation, undergraduate college students from families in lowest quintile of income in the U.S, One group consisted of students from single-parent households and the other of students from two-parent households. Data were from CIRP 2003 College Student Survey (CSS) and its matched data from the Freshman Survey (Student Information Form - SIF). Differences examined included student inputs, involvements, outcomes, and collegiate environments. Included is portrait of low income, first generation college students who successfully navigated U.S. higher education. The number of cases dropped from 15,601 matched SIF/CSS cases to 308 cases of low income, first generation college students (175 from single-parent households and 133 from two-parent households). Most of the 308 attended private, 4-year colleges. Data yielded more similarities than differences between groups. Statistically significant differences (p < .05) existed in 9 of 100 variables including race/ ethnicity, whether or not English was first language, and concern for ability to finance education as freshman. Data were not generalizable to all low income, first generation college students because of lack of public, 4-year and 2-year colleges and universities in dataset. Graduating seniors' average expected debt in June 2003 was $23,824 for students from single-parent households and $19,867 for those from two-parent households. 32% from single-parent households and 22% from two-parent households expected more than $25,000 of debt. Variables used on SIF proved effective tools to develop derived variables to identify low income, first generation college students from single-parent and two-parent households within CIRP database. Methodology to develop derived variables is explained.