Volume 38 - Article 63 | Pages 2003–2026

Intergenerational care for and by children: Examining reciprocity through focus group interviews with older adults in rural Uganda

By Enid Schatz, Janet Seeley, Flavia Zalwango

Print this page  Facebook  Twitter

 

 
Date received:30 Jun 2017
Date published:15 Jun 2018
Word count:8305
Keywords:aging, care work, gender, intergenerational relations, sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2018.38.63
Weblink:You will find all publications in this Special Collection on “Children and family dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa” here.
 

Abstract

Background: Children’s wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa depends on immediate family resources and capabilities, and on extended kin. Evidence suggests that older persons contribute extensively to children’s financial, social, psychosocial, and physical needs. Young people also provide care for older persons. Yet, most studies only capture one side of this relationship.

Objective: We draw attention to intergenerational care relationship reciprocity and the likely impacts on children’s wellbeing.

Methods: We analyze data from the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute annual population census (2015–2016) in rural Kalungu District to establish the likelihood of intergenerational care exchange at the household level. Focus group discussions (FGD) with persons aged 60-plus provide information on the types of exchanges and outcomes impacted by the presence/absence of intergenerational care.

Results: Nearly a quarter of children (age 0–14) in our study site live in households with at least one person aged 60-plus; nearly four-fifths of persons aged 60-plus reside in a household with at least one child. The FGD data suggest that persons aged 60-plus spend considerable physical and financial resources supporting children in their networks, and simultaneously are dependent upon younger generations for various forms of support.

Conclusions: Older persons’ positive relationships with children in their care form a strong basis for the exchange of various types of support; when intergenerational tensions exist, reciprocal care may be less reliable. This intergenerational solidarity, or lack thereof, likely affects children’s wellbeing.

Contribution: Effective new measures of reciprocal care dynamics are needed to understand the impacts on children’s wellbeing.

Author's Affiliation

Enid Schatz - University of Missouri, United States of America [Email]
Janet Seeley - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom [Email]
Flavia Zalwango - Uganda Virus Research Institute, Uganda [Email]

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

» Working with teams of "insiders": Qualitative approaches to data collection in the Global South
Volume 32 - Article 12

» Comparing, Contextualizing, and Conceptualizing: Enhancing Quantitative Data on Women's Situation in Rural Africa
Special Collection 1 - Article 5

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

» Coronavirus and care: How the coronavirus crisis affected fathers' involvement in Germany
Volume 44 - Article 4    | Keywords: care work, gender

» Contemporary female migration in Ghana: Analyses of the 2000 and 2010 Censuses
Volume 39 - Article 44    | Keywords: gender, sub-Saharan Africa

» Generational interdependencies in families: The MULTILINKS research programme
Volume 27 - Article 18    | Keywords: aging, intergenerational relations

» World population aging as a function of period demographic conditions
Volume 48 - Article 13    | Keywords: aging

» Migrating to a new country in late life: A review of the literature on international retirement migration
Volume 48 - Article 9    | Keywords: aging