Child and Young Adult Headed Households in the Context of the AIDS Epidemic in Zimbabwe, 1988-2006

Child and Young Adult Headed Households in the Context of the AIDS Epidemic in Zimbabwe, 1988-2006 PSC Discussion Papers Series Volume 24 | Issue 4 Article 1 7-26-2010 Child and Young Adult Headed Households in the Context of the AIDS Epidemic in Zimbabwe, 1988-2006 Daniel Ciganda The University of Western Ontario, dciganda@fcs.edu.uy Alain Gagnon The University of Western Ontario, agagnon4@uwo.ca. [...] Populations Studies Centre University of Western Ontario London Ontario CANADA N6A 5C2 mailto:dciganda@fcs.edu.uy mailto:dciganda@gmail.com Child and Young Adult Headed Households in the Context of the AIDS Epidemic in Zimbabwe, 1988-2006 Abstract The emergence of Child-Headed Households (CHH) and Young Adult Households (YAH) has largely been taken as an indicator of the erosion of the traditional. [...] The older age of the head means not only additional life experience, capacity to work and involvement in the community, but also the capacity to legally represent the children living in the household and have access to grants and other kinds of formal support from government and other institutions. [...] In fact, effect appears stronger among orphans, which again suggest the presence of a significant amount of support from the extended family and the community to the CHH and YAH or selection issues associated to the establishment of this type of households. [...] In this regard, the findings from our study contribute to the more optimistic previsions about the capacity of the extended family to mitigate the negative effects of the AIDS epidemic on vulnerable children.