• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: Foster Children’s Educational Outcomes when Child Fostering is Motivated by Norms: The Case of Cameroon
  • Beteiligte: Marazyan, Karine
  • Erschienen: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress), 2015
  • Erschienen in: Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 46 (2015) 1, Seite 85-103
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.3138/jcfs.46.1.85
  • ISSN: 0047-2328; 1929-9850
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  • Beschreibung: <jats:p> This paper investigates a new determinant of fostering a child and evaluate whether children who are fostered in due to this reason have different schooling outcomes than children who are fostered in for other reasons. The study tests whether households headed by a male who is the eldest of his brothers have a higher probability of hosting a foster child once the variables such as education, wealth and labor needs are controlled. Such a relationship is expected in patrilineal societies if social norms dictate that this is the duty of the kin group’s head—the eldest brother—to host a child fostered out following a shock and when no other household can take care of him. This hypothesis is tested in the context of Cameroon where many ethnic groups are patrilineal. The author notes that households headed by a male who is the eldest of his brothers have a higher probability of hosting school-age foster girls but not foster boys. This could be either because girls are more likely than boys to be fostered out in the country following an economic or a demographic shock or because they have more difficulties than boys to find a host household. However, no evidence suggesting that girls fostered in due to norms receive less education than girls fostered in for other reasons is found. </jats:p>