Recipients of PSC Small Grant Awards

Sub-Saharan African families are characterized by persistently high fertility, frequent divorce, and high adult mortality, leading many mothers and fathers to experience repartnering (entering new unions) and multipartner fertility (having children with more than one partner). Indeed, in some contexts, such as Gabon, over a third of mothers experience repartnering during their reproductive years and more than half of men report having children with multiple women. Repartnering has implications for parental investments in children’s health and wellbeing through its effects on children’s exposure to single-parent and step-parent households. Additionally, for newly repartnered mothers, the period preceding the first birth with a new partner represents a key, but understudied,  juncture of a woman’s reproductive career, during which women may experience high interest in childbearing to cement the new union or, alternatively, a desire to postpone further childbearing until more union stability is achieved.

The Albert Hermalin Scholars Fund is supporting this project’s long-term goal of incorporating the effects of entering new unions into research on fertility and childrearing, which are currently assessed from the vantage point of a woman’s full reproductive lifespan without regard to dissolution and repartnering.