Catalyzing an International Collaboration to Examine the Impact of Poverty and Culture on Children's Development in the Slums of Nairobi

University Of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville TN

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports creation of a new international research collaboration between a Kenyan academic institution (Kenyatta University), a Kenyan non-governmental organization (The Orphans and Vulnerable Childrens Project), and a U.S. academic institution (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), who together will study how culture may modify the effects of poverty on child development. Slum communities in Kenya provide an ideal context to examine how culture may modify the effects of poverty on child development, as there is tremendous cultural diversity in individual slum communities. Such diversity provides the unique opportunity to research cultural and individual variation in caregiving within one environment, thus avoiding common confounding between culture and the environment of poverty and advancing the science of child development. The new collaboration will bring together unique expertise; Kenyatta University collaborators bring specialized expertise that will be crucial in designing the longitudinal study, particularly as relates to the diverse caregiving configurations of slum-dwelling children as well as determining culturally relevant child outcomes. The NGO collaborators provide expertise in how to work effectively in slum communities and how to identify and observe children from various cultural groups. Students involved in the project will receive valuable research training and experience with inter-cultural collaboration. This training and subsequent data collection in the slums will enhance their abilities to apply theories of socio-cultural factors in child development learned in the classroom to real life experiences. The project promotes diversity and the research capacity of early career scholars in science through the involvement by minority students, as well as the PI, a co-PI, and two senior personnel. This inter-disciplinary and international project also provides benefits to society by supporting development of scientifically grounded interventions aimed at increasing the health and well being of children in poverty.