Globalization, parental decisionmaking, and child welfare in rural northern Thailand

In the context of rapid globalization, this dissertation investigates parental decisionmaking and child welfare with regard to the traditional familial roles of rural northern Thai children as defined by gender and birth order. Through quantitative surveys and focus groups, human behavioral ecology (HBE)-derived hypotheses of parental investment drive an investigation of child fosterage, child labor, child prostitution and trafficking, and educational attainment. Regression and survival analysis models identify the combinations of economic, cultural, and biological factors that lead to high-risk child welfare outcomes, as well as those leading to more positive outcomes. This study constitutes the first empirical application of HBE theory to contemporary, critical social issues such as child trafficking and school drop-out in a society as it has gone through the demographic transition and rapid globalization.;Northern Thai parents have clearly maintained a daughter preference through the processes of globalization, leading to measurable, increasing female-biased investment in human capital and care. Traditional gender- and birth position-defined familial roles have also persisted, in modified form, leading to differential risk of hazardous child welfare outcomes by birth order and gender. Fundamentally, the results counter assertions that females are less valued than males in Thai society, and present a more nuanced interpretation of children's roles in the rural northern Thai family.;Hardworking firstborn daughters responsible for younger siblings may appear most vulnerable to exploitation at first glance, but in actuality are relatively protected from hazardous outcomes due to the importance of their role in the home. Middleborn daughters are important economic helpers, entering the workforce (and marrying and reproducing) earliest, and also disproportionately entering into trafficking and prostitution. Lastborn daughters remain the promoters of their lineage's status and property late in the natal family cycle. As the most heavily invested in, with high educational attainment, they enter the workforce later than earlier born children. However, high levels of education actually increase risk of being trafficked or entered into prostitution as minors, appearing to reflect the interests of family members and girls themselves in recouping the opportunity costs of their education. The case of the rural northern Thai strongly suggests that academics and policy makers must move beyond 'poverty' and 'lack of education' to recognize the subtleties of the challenges and frustrations confronting people living in the less developed parts of a rapidly globalizing world.