Description:
This dataset contains information on 1899 caregivers from the 1961 households that participated in the household survey. However, to facilitate linking, the HHIDs of households completing the household survey were added to this file with no data.
Abstract:
More than two decades after the end of Apartheid, the well-being of South African children is still in a precarious state. An emerging body of research examines the role that poverty and HIV/AIDS play in household functioning, parental illness and death, children's adverse experiences and children's health, education and psychosocial development (e.g. Birdthistle, 2004, Foster & Williamson, 2000; Richter, 2004; Williamson, 2000). However, many urgent scientific and policy questions remain. These include: What are the separate and combined effects of household poverty, parental illness and death on household functioning and children's adverse life experiences and well-being? How do communities, households and children cope with the dual crises of poverty and HIV/AIDS? Who is able to access government-funded grants and services and what is the impact of these on household conditions, children's adverse experiences and children's well-being? How does the impact of grants and services on households and children vary as a function of community factors?
The overarching goals of "Sibhekelela izingane zethu" or "We look out for our children" are to generate usable knowledge about how South African children are being affected by the co-occurring adversities caused by household poverty and HIV/AIDS, and assess the reach and influence of current government-funded grants and services. Data was collected from 24 communities defined by careful GIS mapping. All households were visited and those with a child between the ages of 7 and 10 years enrolled. Data was collected on all household members, the child's Caregiver and the child.
More specifically, the major themes explored in the Caregiver Survey were:
Demographics
Family Relationships
Residency and Child Relocation/Movement
Child's Health and Education
Social Welfare and Services
Household resources and child expenditure
Child Supervision
Child and Caregiver Quality of Life
Strengths and Difficulties
Caregiver Anxiety and Depression
Community Perceptions
Child Protection
Face-to-face interview
Psychological measurements
12 571 households within the demarked 24 school community boundaries.
Study participants (children and their households) were systematically sampled from 24 communities in the Msunduzi municipality in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. This area is characterized by high rates of both household poverty and HIV/AIDS. This area was chosen for its general demographic representativeness of South Africa, although its population is 95% Zulu. Each community was selected based upon the presence of a school serving 7-11-year-old children, and was demarcated using a combination of information about the schoolâs catchment area, geographic boundaries identified by aerial maps and ethnographic mapping including transport routes to school and work for adults in the area. The boundary created from these sources of information was then merged with a physical 1 km radius in rural and 500 meter radius in urban school communities to generate the final school boundary. High resolution aerial mapping was used to identify and enumerate all households within each geographically bounded community.
Depending on visiting point density, one of three strategies was followed to enumerate households. In communities with more than 600 potential visiting points, twenty households were randomly selected from each community for use as cluster nodes, around each of which a cluster of the nearest 30 households (including the cluster node) was selected. In communities with 450-599 potential visiting points, 20 clusters of 30 visiting points was not possible. To accommodate the reduced number of visiting points, as many cluster nodes as would allow cluster of 30 visiting points per cluster were randomly chosen and then the nearest 30 household (including the cluster node) selected. In communities with 450 or fewer visiting points, no cluster nodes were chosen and all visiting points selected for enumeration.
All selected households were screened for eligibility in the study. Eligible households (defined as those which served as primary residences for at least one child aged 7-11 years were recruited to the study. If more than one eligible child was found living in the household, a kish grid was used to select the focal child. This process was repeated until all selected visiting points in the school community had been enumerated.
A total of 1,961 households were recruited into the study. Following a consent process, the household head or a person who viewed themselves as a delegate of the household head completed a face-to-face questionnaire interview about the household conducted in isiZulu. Interviews were conducted by trained Zulu-speaking interviewers. A team of 8 interviewers was supervised in the field by a team coordinator who checked all submitted paper work and resolved any queries that arose in the field. At a later appointment, following an additional consent process, the primary caregiver of the 7-11-year-old focal child in each household completed a face-to-face questionnaire interview about himself or herself and about the child. In approximately 85% of households, the caregiver was the same person who completed the household survey. At a subsequent appointment, following an additional consent process, the focal child completed both a face-to-face questionnaire interview and a series of cognitive assessments. These assessments were conducted either at the child's school or at the child's home after school and on school holidays. All survey responses were recorded electronically on mobile phones. The commercially available Mobenzi Researcher mobile survey software and data management portal were used (www.clyral.com). Mobenzi Researcher is a Java 2 Micro Edition (J2Me) application and provides full survey functionality, including the ability to create various question types, mark fields as mandatory and intelligently manage survey branching.
Respondents were compensated for their time with a food parcel to the value of R30 ($5) at the initial household interview. The child was provided with a small packet of snacks during their interview and psychometric assessment.
