Father absence, paternal investment, and alloparental investment effects on children's educational attainment in rural Bangladesh

Abstract

This thesis examines the effects of fathers and alloparents on children's educational attainment. The study site is Matlab, Bangladesh; a small-scale, non-Western, agricultural society with recent market engagement, frequent father absence and alloparental investment. Analyses of data using multiple linear regression analyses are designed to test predictions about how father's residency, father's time spent with children, alloparental investment, and available kin networks influence children's level of educational attainment in number of years of schooling. Results indicate that (1) father absence due to labor migration has a positive effect on children's educational attainment, but father absence due to divorce/abandonment and death has negative effects; (2) direct alloparental investment has a positive effect on children's educational attainment, while having potential alloparents in the household has a negative effect on children's educational attainment; (3) living in father's bari (patrilineal family compound) has a positive effect on children's level of educational attainment; and (4) greater amounts of time spent with fathers has a positive effect on oldest sons' educational attainment, but no effect on oldest daughters' educational attainment.