Unwanted Childbearing and Child Nutritional Status in the Western Balkan Roma Communities

This book investigates the relationship between maternal investment, unwanted births, and child nutritional outcomes in five poor communities of the Western Balkan Roma. Based on an evolutionary approach, the book directly assesses variability in Roma mothers’ parental care using data from UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys 5 and 6 for the Roma settlements in Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The book includes useful information about Roma communities in the Western Balkans and their history and sufferings in the region. It reviews this history against the data on unwanted childbearing globally and in low- and middle-income countries. It addresses concerns related to Roma people's integration into European society, despite their longstanding presence in Europe. The book analyses the existence of health differentials among Roma children themselves, suggesting that some children are especially vulnerable. Therefore, it critically assesses how multiple (levels of) vulnerabilities affect differential Roma parental investment in children. This book is a useful resource for researchers interested in Roma studies, children's well-being, wellbeing of marginal groups, social work and social justice. 

Introduction.- Parental investment theory.- Unwanted childbearing.- Roma in Europe and the Balkans.- Methodology of research.- Results and discussion.- Conclusion.

Jelena Cvorovic is Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnography, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She has a PhD in Anthropology from the Arizona State University, USA. She is the author of Roast Chicken and Other Gypsy Stories (2010, Hamburg: Peter Lang) and co-author (with Dr Kathryn Coe) of Storytelling around the World: Folktales, Narrative Rituals and Oral Traditions (2022, ABC Clio). She has also published journal articles and book chapters on life history, and maternal and child health.