Who said what? Collecting family data in longitudinal studies of child health and wellbeing in rural South Africa from multiple respondents

Gabriela Mejia-Pailles, University of Southampton
Victoria Hosegood, University of Southampton
Ann M. Berrington, University of Southampton

This paper describes new findings from a project to test new measures of family determinants of child health and wellbeing in longitudinal, population-based studies in sub-Saharan Africa. Two new instruments were developed and piloted in rural South Africa to collect detailed information about the parenting and caregiving involvement of all household members including men, non-resident parents and people outside the household. These questionnaires were administered as part of the Africa Centre Demographic Information System routine data collection visits. Information about 3,120 households was obtained from interview with proxy household respondents. A further 3,304 adults 15 years or older were asked about their own involvement in parenting and caregiving. In this paper we examine the examine the completeness, validity and reliability of data obtained from multiple respondents on i) the health and wellbeing of children and, ii) the level and types of parenting and caregiving involvement.