Understanding Household Dynamics From the Ground Up: A Longitudinal Study From a Rural South African Setting

Investigations into house hold struc ture in low- and mid dle-income countries (LMICs) pro vide impor tant insight into how fam i lies man age domes tic life in response to resource allo ca tion and care giv ing needs dur ing peri ods of rapid sociopo lit i cal and health -related chal lenges. Recent evi dence on house hold struc ture in many LMICs con trasts with long-stand ing view points of world wide con ver gence to a Western nuclearized house hold model. Here, we adopt a house hold-cen tered the o retical and methodological framework to investigate longitudinal patterns and dynamics of house hold struc ture in a rural South Afri can set ting dur ing a period of high AIDSrelated mor tal ity and socio eco nomic change. Data come from the Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (2003-2015). Using latent tran si tion mod els, we derived six distinct household types by examining conditional interdependency between household heads' characteristics, members' age composition, and migration sta tus. More than half of house holds were char ac ter ized by their com plex and mul tigenerational profiles, with considerable within -typology variation in household size and depen dency struc ture. Transition ana ly ses showed sta bil ity of house hold types under female head ship, while higher pro por tions of nuclearized house hold types dissolved over time. Household dis so lu tion was closely linked to prior mor tal ity expe ri ences- particularly, following death of a male head. Our findings highlight the need to better conceptualize and contextualize household changes across populations and over time.