Child headed households: are they more vulnerable.

Yovani Moses A Lubaale, Makerere University

Many scholars of psychology, sociology and families in general contend that children develop better socially, mentally and emotionally in familiar surroundings with extended families thus should be cared for in such environments as long as possible. Child headed households is a new concept in the Ugandan society but many studies have now showed that child headed households is something now to live with. Surprisingly most studies on child headed households have focused on orphans due to various reasons. Being underage and you have a responsibility is a form of vulnerability that has been investigated in this paper. According 2002 Uganda census, 0.7% of the children lived in households headed by children and 13.2% headed by elderly. The proportion may seem small, in absolute numbers, over 80,000 children in Uganda lived in households headed by fellow children. This paper investigates if children in households headed by fellow children are worse off.