Alloparenting
Encyclopedia
In biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

, alloparenting is where individuals other than the actual parents act in a parental role.

One common form of alloparenting is where grandparents adopt a parental role. This is sometimes named a "skipped generation household". In 1997, 8% of children in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 lived with their grandparents, with the grandparents being the caregivers in one third of those cases.

According to Deihl, the Efé
Efé
The Efé are a group of part-time hunter-gatherer people living in the Ituri Rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the depths of the forest they do not wear much clothing, using only leaf huts as shelter for their bodies in the intense heat. The Efé are Pygmies, and one of the shortest...

 people of Ituri Forest in the Democratic Republic of Congo practice alloparenting, with care for infants coming from siblings, grandparents, and older members of the community. Deihl states that where siblings are alloparents this provides adolescents experience of being a parent, and that similar practice in the United States would reduce the rate of teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female under the age of 20 when the pregnancy ends. It generally refers to a female who is unmarried and usually refers to an unplanned pregnancy...

and make teenage parents "better parent[s] when they do become parents".
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