Using regression analyses with a sample of over one million under 5 children across 66 developing nations from the Demographic and Health Survey, this study explores the impact of son preference on health disparities between male and female children. The authors consider the Grossman Theory (1972), which suggests health as a lasting "capital stock in the production of healthy time". The idea is that health gradually diminishes and can be restored through investments in various health-related factors such as nutrition and medical services. Although parents with son preference may make distinct and rational investments in both genders, favoritism may impact the health outcomes of female children. The authors suggest that the degree of son preference's impact will vary between families according to their socio-economic background. There is support for both hypotheses, since the results show that son preference enhances health disparities based on gender and disproportionately affects female children of lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

In this master's thesis, the author seeks to understand the determinants of attitudes on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). She does this by correlating data on socioeconomic status, age, and education against survey data about IPV attitudes from Demographic and Health Surveys that were conducted in 56 countries across the world. Additionally, for purposes of analysis, she also ran correlations between attitudes and ancestral plow use data some the Ethnographic Atlas as a proxy for the presence of patriarchal norms. Finally, and most uniquely, the author conducted relational analyses between couples in order to gauge how IPV attitudes were influenced by the attitudes of a person's partner. The author concludes with suggestions of how this information can be used by policymakers in order to reduced and ultimately eliminate IPV.

The authors of this study investigate both intimate partner violence (IPV) in Africa and tolerance towards it. Merging Demographic and Health Survey data with information from the Ethnographic Atlas, they take into account a wide range of ancestral characteristics that could influence domestic violence today, including precolonial economic roles and marriage traditions. Their findings indicate that societies in which men were dominant in subsistence and/or had androcentric marital practices have more IPV today, and more acceptance of it. They also find an interesting gender gap in acceptance of IPV, in which women are more likely than men to justify domestic violence.

The authors of this study integrate recent data with data on ancestral ethnic groups' exposure to the slave trade in order to examine the relationship between this historical exposure and children vaccination status against measles. They find evidence to support their hypothesis that children from mothers whose ancestors belonged to an ethnic group that exported slaves are less likely to be vaccinated against measles, theorizing that this correlation stems from distrust in medical and governmental institutions. Supporting this theory, they also find that groups historically exposed to the slave trade that have higher preference for traditional practices are even less likely to vaccinate their children against measles.

In this study, the author closely examines the educational outcomes of Christian missions in sub-Saharan African societies. He shows that there was local demand for formal education, but theorizes that this demand decreased in polygamous societies as Christian missionaries required monogamy for entry. His results show areas that experienced this struggle over polygamy are associated with worse educational outcomes than those that did not.

In this article, the author seeks to understand the effect of witchcraft beliefs (both personal and regional) on various measures of social capital. Through empirical tests, the author concludes that witchcraft beliefs are robustly associated with anti-social attitudes in 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. Specifically, they find that witchcraft and other supernatural beliefs significantly affect levels of both generalized trust and trust for people of other religions. They also find that these attitudes are present among second-generation immigrants to Europe who originate from these countries. The worldwide Standard Cross-Cultural Sample is also used to examine relationships between witchcraft, mistrust, and other anti-social behaviors.

How have ethnopolitical landscapes transformed across Africa? The authors of this article analyze how ethnic identities have been influenced by two major socioeconomic revolutions of 19th and 20th century sub-Saharan Africa: cash crops and print technologies. They found that ethnic identities, through the means of politicization and boundary-making, had become more salient and politically relevant in communities where cash crops and print technologies were present. Furthermore, areas with cash crops and subsequent agricultural zones were found to have stricter ethnic boundaries and less interethnic marriage than areas with more print publications.