Thesis
ALLOPARENTING AMONG FICTIVE KIN: AN EXAMINATION OF GODPARENTS IMPACT ON CHILDREN'S EDUCATION
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
01/2022
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004474
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124855
Abstract
Alloparents are a universal feature of human reproductive strategies that provide parents with help in child rearing. Kin alloparents, such as grandmothers, have been widely studied. Fewer studies have looked at the potential impact that non-kin alloparents have on child outcomes. Interbirth intervals and child mortality rates are commonly used to determine alloparents’ impact on children, however there are other potential measures that could be used, such as education. Education often leads to better individual outcomes, such as increased access to economic, social, and symbolic capital that can translate into greater success in marriage markets and better access to resources. We look at two horticultural communities in Bolivia where the ritual kinship system compadrazgo, or godparent relationship, is common. We examine data collected through surveys (n = 616) using Bayesian mixed-effect models to determine whether these ritual kin provide alloparental care for their godchildren that translates into measurable increases in educational attainment. We find that in the context of the sampled communities, godparents do not have an effect on educational attainment. This may be a product of how the data were collected; we make recommendations for how field researchers can better assess the impact of non-kin alloparents in future research.
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Details
- Title
- ALLOPARENTING AMONG FICTIVE KIN: AN EXAMINATION OF GODPARENTS IMPACT ON CHILDREN'S EDUCATION
- Creators
- Eric Bradley Hubbard
- Contributors
- Anne C Pisor (Advisor)Courtney L Meehan (Committee Member)Robert J Quinlan (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of Anthropology
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 64
- Identifiers
- 99900882027701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis