Changes in household composition and their effects on the academic achievement of orphans and vulnerable children affected by HIV in rural Zambia

The African kinship system facilitates the movement of children and adults between households to mitigate hardship, yet few studies have documented membership changes in rural African households over time and addressed the effects of these household dynamics on the developmental outcomes of children. We used a household inventory instrument to document the number of changes in household membership experienced by 93 households in rural Zambia between two timepoints (∼2 years apart). We then used multilevel models to evaluate the effects of migration and household change on the academic learning of the children affected by HIV residing in these households, positing migration between households as a proxy for household connectivity and a potential protective factor for children. Our inventoried households experienced on average 4.12 changes in membership over the measured period. About half of these changes were due to children under 10 moving between relatives' households. No effects of these migration-related variables were found on children's academic progress at the family level. Household connectivity, as operationalized by the movement of individuals between households, may be typical to these children's home life and were not shown to be detrimental to their academic learning.