Children Home Alone Unsupervised: Modeling Parental Decisions and Associated Factors in Botswana, Mexico, and Vietnam

• NCJ Number: 227392
• Journal: Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 312-323
• Author(s): Monica Ruiz-Casares; Jody Heymann
• Date Published: May 2009
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined various child-care arrangements used by working families in countries undergoing major socioeconomic transitions (Botswana, Mexico, and Vietnam), with attention to modeling parental decisions to leave children home alone.

Abstract

A significant number of families in all three countries left children home alone regularly or occasionally. This was the case for one-half of the families in Botswana, over one-third of the families in Mexico, and one-fifth of the families in Vietnam. Fifty-two percent of the families leaving children home alone relied on other children to help with child care. Critical factors related to parents' decisions to leave children home alone were parental unavailability, poor working conditions, limited support networks, inability to afford child care, neighborhood safety, and children's age. Children also were left home alone or without quality supervision when informal child-care providers failed to provide care. Leaving children home alone was seldom parents' preferred choice. The risks for children identified by parents included unintentional injuries, loneliness, and poor behavioral and developmental consequences. Some benefits mentioned by parents were a strengthening of the child's independence and sibling relationships. Understanding why children are left home alone or under the supervision of another child is critical to the development of suitable interventions. The current study highlights the need to understand the etiology of each case, in order to determine whether parents are using the best option among untenable choices, or if it is a case of parental, caregiver, or societal neglect. Researchers interviewed 537 working caregivers attending government health clinics in the 3 countries. Findings were developed from descriptive statistics content analysis, and ethnographic decision modeling. 1 table, 2 figures, and 68 references