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Research throughout much of Africa indicates that young people's first sexual experiences are taking place in a different social context from those of previous generations (Caldwell et al. 1998; Mensch [...]

Many of the challenges facing children now are a function of changing times, including increase in urbanization, political violence, changing family forms, and in some areas decreased supplies of adequate food. This review focuses particularly on those changes in which children are the victims and which induce new threats for them, rather than on problems such as child disability or mental illness. The outcome variables of interest in this paper are dimensions of children's psychosocial development, including cognitive development, psychological adjustment and aggression, whereas the companion paper in this issue (Caldwell P., Child survival: vulnerability and resilience in adversity in the European past and the contemporary Third World, Soc. Sci. Med.) [1] focuses on physical aspects of children's development. The risks that are hurdles in the process of development of a young child begin from conception and carry on into later life. To address them all would be impossible; thus, in order to do justice to the issues at hand, we have chosen those risks that, in our view, are important in a child's psychosocial development in developing countries. This paper will thus provide a discussion of the concepts of risk and resilience, then apply these concepts to the analysis of three examples of risk faced by children today: nutritional threats (e.g. malnutrition due to decline in breastfeeding); family dynamics and types of family forms (e.g. child fostering and non-traditional families); and experiences of violence (domestic or political). In each case, the same four questions will be addressed: what are the consequences of the risk factor for children, what are the etiologies and conditions of risk, are there any children who seem to cope with the risk factor successfully and what are some of the protective factors, and what interventions or programs would help support these children? Keywords - child development, vulnerability, resilience, malnutrition, violence toward children

This article assesses the determinants of child fostering and its effect on children's nutritional status among the Malian Fulani. Anthropometric evidence indicates that nutritional outcomes are more strongly associated with the reasons for the child's transfer rather than with the fostering per se. These effects persist intergenerationally with the biological children of mothers who were themselves fostered under forced circumstances exhibiting poorer nutritional outcomes than children of mothers who were actively requested by their foster parents during childhood. A bio-social model is presented to understand the intergenerational determinants of these effects and their pathways of influence. Key words: fostering, child care, child health, Fulani; West Africa, Mali

Research in West Africa has begun to document the phenomenon of child fostering although little attention has focussed on other types of non-maternal child care arrangements and their impact on child health. Evidence from a sample of 77 weaned children under five in rural Mall found that over one third (35%) of children were not the prime responsibility of both their biological parents. Nineteen per cent (N = 15) of the sample were formally fostered children, known as sukaabe bambaabe, who lived neither with their biological mothers nor with their biological fathers. Others lived under flexible or semi-permanent non-maternal care arrangements both within and outside the agnatic family. Factors precipitating fostering are outlined and are divided into: (i) those under which the child is fostered away from its biological family through force of circumstance; and (ii) those under which the child is actively requested by its foster mother. Rather than fostering providing a universal option for over-burdened mothers with too many or too closely-spaced children, the field evidence shows that the movement of children within and between households is rigorously controlled by the female social hierarchy. Children are transferred in a uni-directional fashion from the care of their low status biological mothers to high status foster mothers. Their transfer serves to visibly reinforce socio-political power differentials between these women who are at different stages of the female life-cycle and in different sets of household circumstances. Economic factors are not associated with the decision to keep the child or to foster it away, but do appear to determine whether the children living under non-maternal care are fostered out under a structured or unstructured fostering arrangement. Contrary to findings in other West African settings, fostering per se has little impact on children's nutritional outcomes as measured by their weight-for-age Z-Scores, probably because the use of surrogate or sibling caretakers is common in this environment even for children who are the full responsibility of their biological mothers. The context of the fostering, however, does influence fostered children's nutritional status. Those children who were requested by their foster mothers had better nutritional outcomes than those who were fostered in by force of circumstance. It is concluded that the concept of 'maternal and child health' and the 'maternal-child' dyad around which both health interventions and demographic evaluations are centred, may not always be appropriate in areas of high fostering prevalence. Key words - child fostering, women's status, women's health, Fulani

Demographic theory frequently assumes that pre-transitional populations adopt fatalistic attitudes to fertility and mortality. Fertility decline is said to require a 'pro-active' mentality incorporating a newly conceived idea of numeracy about children and a new-found awareness by individuals of where they stand in relation to demographic norms. Nonnumeric responses to questions about desired family size are interpreted as meaning that women are unable to conceptualise their ideal number of children and are unaware of their demographic environment. However, ethnographic evidence from the Malian Fulani will show how women accurately appraise their mortality and fertility regimes and how they actively seek to manipulate them via a series of ritual behaviours. It is described how women do think numerically about demographic outcomes but are reluctant to verbalise this numeracy as it is believed that it will incur supernatural risks. The implications for demographic research of the widespread belief in the danger of verbalising numbers of children are discussed. Keywords: Mall; Fulani; Anthropological demography; Desired family size; Fertility surveys

Author(s): Sarah K. Castle [1] [illus. 1] Eshe Mintz was one of the lucky millions who experienced the martian first contact as it occurred. She was up giving the Batemans' [...]

Eshe Mintz was one of the lucky millions who experienced the martian first contact as it occurred. She was up giving the Batemans' baby, Madeline, a bottle at 09:13 GMT [...]