Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?

This paper seeks to investigate the role of housing quality on the relationship between maternal education and child malnutrition using the 2018 Cameroonian demographic and health survey. We employed the control function modelling and the non-self-cluster mean/proportion identification strategies to...

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Main Authors: Mark Wiykiynyuy Tangwa, Boniface Ngah Epo, Francis Menjo Baye
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-01-01
Series:Social Sciences and Humanities Open
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291124000986
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author Mark Wiykiynyuy Tangwa
Boniface Ngah Epo
Francis Menjo Baye
author_facet Mark Wiykiynyuy Tangwa
Boniface Ngah Epo
Francis Menjo Baye
author_sort Mark Wiykiynyuy Tangwa
collection DOAJ
description This paper seeks to investigate the role of housing quality on the relationship between maternal education and child malnutrition using the 2018 Cameroonian demographic and health survey. We employed the control function modelling and the non-self-cluster mean/proportion identification strategies to address potential endogeneity and sample selection concerns. Results indicate that: (a) women with less than ten years of schooling are more likely to have malnourished children than their counterparts with more years; (b) a percentage improvement in housing quality reduces the risk of a child being malnourished by about nine percentage points, and enhances the likelihood that mother's education will reduce child malnutrition; and (c) the mediation role of housing quality on the mother's education-child nutrition nexus is significant overall, but heterogeneous when we consider the different agroecological zones. These findings suggest the need for policy interventions on housing quality as a possible channel to enhance the direct effect of maternal education in reducing the probability of child malnutrition, and the potency of this channel would be increased if agroecological and cultural specificities are accounted for.
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spelling doaj.art-02e0ca13bc7a4c1fa70f7b238268863e2024-04-07T04:36:45ZengElsevierSocial Sciences and Humanities Open2590-29112024-01-019100901Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?Mark Wiykiynyuy Tangwa0Boniface Ngah Epo1Francis Menjo Baye2Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaoundé II, CameroonCorresponding author.; Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaoundé II, CameroonFaculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaoundé II, CameroonThis paper seeks to investigate the role of housing quality on the relationship between maternal education and child malnutrition using the 2018 Cameroonian demographic and health survey. We employed the control function modelling and the non-self-cluster mean/proportion identification strategies to address potential endogeneity and sample selection concerns. Results indicate that: (a) women with less than ten years of schooling are more likely to have malnourished children than their counterparts with more years; (b) a percentage improvement in housing quality reduces the risk of a child being malnourished by about nine percentage points, and enhances the likelihood that mother's education will reduce child malnutrition; and (c) the mediation role of housing quality on the mother's education-child nutrition nexus is significant overall, but heterogeneous when we consider the different agroecological zones. These findings suggest the need for policy interventions on housing quality as a possible channel to enhance the direct effect of maternal education in reducing the probability of child malnutrition, and the potency of this channel would be increased if agroecological and cultural specificities are accounted for.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291124000986Housing qualityChild malnutritionMaternal education
spellingShingle Mark Wiykiynyuy Tangwa
Boniface Ngah Epo
Francis Menjo Baye
Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?
Social Sciences and Humanities Open
Housing quality
Child malnutrition
Maternal education
title Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?
title_full Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?
title_fullStr Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?
title_full_unstemmed Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?
title_short Maternal education and child malnutrition in Cameroon: Does housing quality matter?
title_sort maternal education and child malnutrition in cameroon does housing quality matter
topic Housing quality
Child malnutrition
Maternal education
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291124000986
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