Socioeconomía y sostenibilidad familiar de mujeres comerciantes de pescado en Belén, Iquitos: un análisis mixto mediante ACP y FsQCA

In the Amazonian departments of Perú, the commercialization of fishery products constitutes a traditional way of life and subsistence for local populations. Transcending the economic factor, the economic activity linked to fishing constitutes a space of social participation and empowerment for women, who have historically played a leading role in preserving ancestral traditions and knowledge related to artisanal fishing and food security. The objective of the study was to analyze the complex relationships between socioeconomic components and their impact on family sustainability among women fish traders in Perú, 2023. This was a quantitative, descriptive, and analytical study that employed descriptive statistics, principal component analysis (PCA), and qualitative comparative analysis using fuzzy sets (fsQCA) on a non-probability sample. The main findings revealed that participants manifested moderate to high levels of family quality of life. The PCA corroborated the multidimensional structure of family quality of life by objectifying four main components aligned with the theoretical domains of the Family Quality of Life Scale, emphasizing 4 factors: Constructive family interactions, health, parental role, and access to material and symbolic resources for family group sustenance. The fsQCA analysis identified four specific causal configurations toward family sustainability, revealing that factors such as prolonged work experience, intensive temporal dedication, high sales volumes, and strategic price management constitute convergent nuclear elements. Significantly, divergences were evidenced regarding the role of the head of household and financing modalities, suggesting multiple causal pathways toward domestic sustainability. The family interaction domain presented the lowest scores, evidencing tensions derived from the reconciliation between productive and reproductive roles. Informal support networks emerged as fundamental support mechanisms, facilitating the circulation of information and resources among peers, constituting the foundation of family sustainability in the absence of formal organizational affiliation.