Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi

Martin Limbikani Mwale; Tony Mwenda Kamninga; Gowokani Chijere Chirwa

doi:doi:10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

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Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi

Martin Limbikani Mwale, Tony Mwenda Kamninga, Gowokani Chijere Chirwa

Published in Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 6, Issue 3)

Received: 16 April 2020 Accepted: 3 May 2020 Published: 15 May 2020

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to understand how gender gaps in child nutrition vary across different levels of mother’s education. We obtained anthropometric indicators from a secondary and publicly accessible Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-2014) data. We used height-for-age and stunting as nutrition indicators and gender as the main determinant while splitting the sample by mother’s education. We apply Ordinary Least Squares on the data in Stata 16 to understand if female and male differences in under-five child nutrition differs conditional on the level of education for their mother, while controlling for diverse child, household and community characteristics. Our finding suggests that female child height for age premium increases at high levels of mother’s education and differences in stunting disappear amongst uneducated and highly educated mothers while persisting amongst the middle education levels (primary and secondary educated mothers). We conclude that gendered nutrition gaps are heterogeneous across different levels of mother education. In the case of a rural economy of sub-Sahara (SSA) such as Malawi, female children get the lion’s share of nutrition investment as the education of the mother increases. However, the female nutrition premium reduces with increasing education only when it threatens the male child into nutrition deficiency.

Published in	Central African Journal of Public Health (Volume 6, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
Page(s)	173-179
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Child Nutrition, Gender Disparities, Mother’s Education, Nutrition Investment, Malawi

References

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[6]	Svedberg P. Undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. J Dev Stud. 1990; 26 (3): 469–86.
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[9]	Chirwa EW, Ngalawa HP. Determinants of child nutrition in malawi. South African J Econ. 2008; 76 (4): 628–40.
[10]	Mussa R. Intrahoushold and Interhousehold Child Nutrition Inequality in Malawi. South African J Econ. 2015; 83 (1): 140–53.
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[12]	Barnes AT, Young MD, Murtagh EM, Collins CE, Plotniko RC, Morgan PJ. Effectiveness of mother and daughter interventions targeting physical activity, fitness, nutrition and adiposity: A systematic review. Prev Med (Baltim). 2018; 111: 55–66.
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Martin Limbikani Mwale, Tony Mwenda Kamninga, Gowokani Chijere Chirwa. (2020). Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi. Central African Journal of Public Health, 6(3), 173-179. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

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ACS Style

Martin Limbikani Mwale; Tony Mwenda Kamninga; Gowokani Chijere Chirwa. Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2020, 6(3), 173-179. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

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AMA Style

Martin Limbikani Mwale, Tony Mwenda Kamninga, Gowokani Chijere Chirwa. Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi. Cent Afr J Public Health. 2020;6(3):173-179. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

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@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19,
  author = {Martin Limbikani Mwale and Tony Mwenda Kamninga and Gowokani Chijere Chirwa},
  title = {Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi},
  journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health},
  volume = {6},
  number = {3},
  pages = {173-179},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20200603.19},
  abstract = {The objective of this study was to understand how gender gaps in child nutrition vary across different levels of mother’s education. We obtained anthropometric indicators from a secondary and publicly accessible Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-2014) data. We used height-for-age and stunting as nutrition indicators and gender as the main determinant while splitting the sample by mother’s education. We apply Ordinary Least Squares on the data in Stata 16 to understand if female and male differences in under-five child nutrition differs conditional on the level of education for their mother, while controlling for diverse child, household and community characteristics. Our finding suggests that female child height for age premium increases at high levels of mother’s education and differences in stunting disappear amongst uneducated and highly educated mothers while persisting amongst the middle education levels (primary and secondary educated mothers). We conclude that gendered nutrition gaps are heterogeneous across different levels of mother education. In the case of a rural economy of sub-Sahara (SSA) such as Malawi, female children get the lion’s share of nutrition investment as the education of the mother increases. However, the female nutrition premium reduces with increasing education only when it threatens the male child into nutrition deficiency.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi
AU  - Martin Limbikani Mwale
AU  - Tony Mwenda Kamninga
AU  - Gowokani Chijere Chirwa
Y1  - 2020/05/15
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
DO  - 10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
T2  - Central African Journal of Public Health
JF  - Central African Journal of Public Health
JO  - Central African Journal of Public Health
SP  - 173
EP  - 179
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-5781
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
AB  - The objective of this study was to understand how gender gaps in child nutrition vary across different levels of mother’s education. We obtained anthropometric indicators from a secondary and publicly accessible Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-2014) data. We used height-for-age and stunting as nutrition indicators and gender as the main determinant while splitting the sample by mother’s education. We apply Ordinary Least Squares on the data in Stata 16 to understand if female and male differences in under-five child nutrition differs conditional on the level of education for their mother, while controlling for diverse child, household and community characteristics. Our finding suggests that female child height for age premium increases at high levels of mother’s education and differences in stunting disappear amongst uneducated and highly educated mothers while persisting amongst the middle education levels (primary and secondary educated mothers). We conclude that gendered nutrition gaps are heterogeneous across different levels of mother education. In the case of a rural economy of sub-Sahara (SSA) such as Malawi, female children get the lion’s share of nutrition investment as the education of the mother increases. However, the female nutrition premium reduces with increasing education only when it threatens the male child into nutrition deficiency.
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
ER  -

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Author Information

Martin Limbikani Mwale

Department of Economics, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Tony Mwenda Kamninga

Department Economics, School of Social and Health Sciences, Millennium University, Blantyre, Malawi
Gowokani Chijere Chirwa

Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Science, University of Malawi, Chancellor College, Zomba, Malawi

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APA Style

Martin Limbikani Mwale, Tony Mwenda Kamninga, Gowokani Chijere Chirwa. (2020). Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi. Central African Journal of Public Health, 6(3), 173-179. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

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ACS Style

Martin Limbikani Mwale; Tony Mwenda Kamninga; Gowokani Chijere Chirwa. Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi. Cent. Afr. J. Public Health 2020, 6(3), 173-179. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

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AMA Style

Martin Limbikani Mwale, Tony Mwenda Kamninga, Gowokani Chijere Chirwa. Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi. Cent Afr J Public Health. 2020;6(3):173-179. doi: 10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19,
  author = {Martin Limbikani Mwale and Tony Mwenda Kamninga and Gowokani Chijere Chirwa},
  title = {Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi},
  journal = {Central African Journal of Public Health},
  volume = {6},
  number = {3},
  pages = {173-179},
  doi = {10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cajph.20200603.19},
  abstract = {The objective of this study was to understand how gender gaps in child nutrition vary across different levels of mother’s education. We obtained anthropometric indicators from a secondary and publicly accessible Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-2014) data. We used height-for-age and stunting as nutrition indicators and gender as the main determinant while splitting the sample by mother’s education. We apply Ordinary Least Squares on the data in Stata 16 to understand if female and male differences in under-five child nutrition differs conditional on the level of education for their mother, while controlling for diverse child, household and community characteristics. Our finding suggests that female child height for age premium increases at high levels of mother’s education and differences in stunting disappear amongst uneducated and highly educated mothers while persisting amongst the middle education levels (primary and secondary educated mothers). We conclude that gendered nutrition gaps are heterogeneous across different levels of mother education. In the case of a rural economy of sub-Sahara (SSA) such as Malawi, female children get the lion’s share of nutrition investment as the education of the mother increases. However, the female nutrition premium reduces with increasing education only when it threatens the male child into nutrition deficiency.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Gender and Child Nutrition: Implications of Mother’s Education in Malawi
AU  - Martin Limbikani Mwale
AU  - Tony Mwenda Kamninga
AU  - Gowokani Chijere Chirwa
Y1  - 2020/05/15
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
DO  - 10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
T2  - Central African Journal of Public Health
JF  - Central African Journal of Public Health
JO  - Central African Journal of Public Health
SP  - 173
EP  - 179
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-5781
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cajph.20200603.19
AB  - The objective of this study was to understand how gender gaps in child nutrition vary across different levels of mother’s education. We obtained anthropometric indicators from a secondary and publicly accessible Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS-2014) data. We used height-for-age and stunting as nutrition indicators and gender as the main determinant while splitting the sample by mother’s education. We apply Ordinary Least Squares on the data in Stata 16 to understand if female and male differences in under-five child nutrition differs conditional on the level of education for their mother, while controlling for diverse child, household and community characteristics. Our finding suggests that female child height for age premium increases at high levels of mother’s education and differences in stunting disappear amongst uneducated and highly educated mothers while persisting amongst the middle education levels (primary and secondary educated mothers). We conclude that gendered nutrition gaps are heterogeneous across different levels of mother education. In the case of a rural economy of sub-Sahara (SSA) such as Malawi, female children get the lion’s share of nutrition investment as the education of the mother increases. However, the female nutrition premium reduces with increasing education only when it threatens the male child into nutrition deficiency.
VL  - 6
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download