Children in South African families: lives and times

Abstract

With diverse family formations, non-marital childbearing, and diverse parenting situations prevalent in South Africa, the book covers both the conceptual and theoretical questions that explore the context of children's experiences. It uses examples from a range of primary and secondary data sources to illustrate how resilience in children faced with adversity could be nurtured, demonstrating the links between theory and practice, and critically commenting on questions of epistemology by drawing on research with children within different African social and cultural contexts.While the volume affirms the complexities of explaining child adversity or privilege, it stresses the diversity of South African children's experiences and the importance of adopting both children's rights and Afro-centric perspectives to account for the commonality and diversity of childhood and children's empowerment in diverse family systems.