The Impact of HIV/AIDS and Other Macrosocial Transformations on Children's Living Arrangements in South Africa

Erika K. Barth Cottrell, University of Wisconsin at Madison
Nompumelelo B. Nzimande, University of Wisconsin at Madison

South Africa experienced profound social, political, and demographic changes in the 1990s. Not only did the country witness the historic end of apartheid, it also confronted the onset and rapid rise of HIV/AIDS. This paper investigates how children’s living arrangements changed in the wake of HIV/AIDS and the end of apartheid and will contribute to our understanding of how families and households are coping with these two extraordinary phenomena. Using the first two censuses of post-apartheid South Africa conducted in 1996 and 2001, we describe changes in children’s living arrangements over this period and, more specifically, explore their relationship to the macrosocial transformations of the 1990s. We focus on the living arrangements of children because the environment in which children live and grow has important implications for their wellbeing and the future fabric of society.