This study is an analytical and empirical assessment of the impact of
household structures on children’s welfare using household level data from South
Africa. Specifically, the thesis measures the relationship between different types of
household structures and their impact on children’s health, namely their height-forage
z scores. Households are classified as “Female-only” and “Mixed-gender”, with
the latter further differentiated as “Nuclear” and “Extended”. The study thus moves
beyond the traditional “male-female” headship commonly adopted in the Women in
Development (WID) literature in defining households. Instead, the classification
suggest that gender, kinship and other relationships characterize households and that
children live not only in nuclear families but also in various forms of extended
families. The study analyzes children’s welfare from within the reality of these
complex household structures. This framework is used to look at resource allocation
impact of different household structures on children’s welfare – the focus of many
studies in the WID literature. It also analyzes the impact of non-tangibles on
children’s welfare, such as the presence of fathers and mothers – an emphasis placed
in household studies in industrialized countries.
While confirming the findings of the research in WID literature that “femaleonly”
households are on average poorer compared to other types of households, the
results suggest that welfare of children in “female-only” households is not protected
through an expenditure-switching strategy. The impact of lower income is not
compensated by a preference for higher spending on children. The results suggest that
ceteris paribus, children’s welfare is enhanced in family structures that have a
presence of both males and females. This latter result has been confirmed in many of
the household studies for industrialized countries. The analysis implies that the
relationship between household structures and children’s welfare is far more complex
than suggested by the simple dichotomy of “male-female” headship commonly
adopted in the WID literature.