The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia

Sear, Rebecca, Steele, Fiona ORCID: 0000-0001-6417-7444, McGregor, Ian A. and Mace, Ruth (2002) The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia. Demography, 39 (1). pp. 43-63. ISSN 0070-3370

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Abstract

In this paper we analyse data that were collected continuously between 1950 and 1974 from a rural area of The Gambia to determine the effects of kin on child mortality. Multilevel event history models are used to demonstrate that having a living mother, maternal grandmother or elder sisters had a significant positive effect on the survival probabilities of children, whereas fathers, paternal grandmothers, grandfathers and elder brothers had no effect. The mother’s remarriage to a new husband had a detrimental effect on child survival, but there is little difference in the mortality rates of children born to monogamous or polygynous fathers. The implications of these results for understanding the evolution of human life history are discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.popassoc.org/publications.html
Additional Information:	Published 2002 © Population Association of America. Permission for inclusion granted 04 July 2005. LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website.
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HA Statistics
Date Deposited:	23 Mar 2006
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 22:31
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/247

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