Childcare in Transition: Evidence That Patterns of Childcare Differ by Degree of Market Integration in Northwestern Tanzania

Abstract

Women have received help with child-rearing throughout human history, and much of this help would have come from kin. Market integration presumably reduces kin numbers in social networks, which may transform the patterns of support that mothers receive. Yet, few empirical studies have quantified the role of market integration in childcare arrangements. Using survey data from 808 under-5 children from Mwanza, Tanzania, we explore differences in childcare arrangements between a village that is less market-integrated and a town that is more market-integrated. We consider low-intensity and high-intensity childcare from fathers, siblings, maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents, maternal aunts/uncles, paternal aunts/uncles, and distant kin or nonkin. We generate data on, and investigate, an often assumed but rarely tested hypothesis: that market integration is associated with (1) lower odds of childcare support from kin and (2) higher odds of support from nonkin. We find mixed support: fathers, siblings, and paternal kin have lower odds, and distant kin/nonkin have higher odds, of providing care in the town than in the village. Maternal kin caregiving is not associated with place of residence. Our findings suggest that market integration disrupts paternal kin childcare arrangements but not care from maternal kin, who may overcome greater physical distances to maintain contact. Distant kin/nonkin appear to substitute for reduced support from close kin in the town.