The dynamics of household dissolution and change in socio-economic position: A survival model in a rural South Africa.
This paper investigates household dissolution and changes in asset wealth (socio-economic position) in a rural South African community containing settled refugees. Survival analysis applied to a longitudinal dataset indicated that the covariates increasing the risk of forced household dissolution were a reduction in socio-economic position (asset wealth), adult deaths and the permanent outmigration of more than 40% of the household. Conversely, the risk of dissolution was reduced by bigger households, state grants and older household heads. Significant spatial clusters of former refugee villages also showed a higher risk of dissolution after 20 years of permanent residence. A discussion of the dynamics of dissolution showed how an outflow/inflow of household assets (socio-economic position) was precipitated by each of the selected covariates. The paper shows how an understanding of the dynamics of forced household dissolution, combined with the use of geo-spatial mapping, can inform inter-disciplinary policy in a rural community.
Professor, School of Accountancy, University of the Witwatersrand , Private Bag 3, Wits 2050 , South Africa.
Kurt
K
Sartorius
Associate Professor, Discipline of Public Health Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Kwazulu-Natal , Durban , South Africa ; MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg , South Africa.
Benn Kd
BK
Sartorius
Professor, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg , South Africa ; Centre for Global Health Research, Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University , Umeå , Sweden ; INDEPTH Network , Accra , Ghana.
Mark A
MA
Collinson
Senior Researcher, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg , South Africa ; Centre for Global Health Research, Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University , Umeå , Sweden ; INDEPTH Network , Accra , Ghana.
Stephen M
SM
Tollman
O12; P25; Z13; household dissolution; rural