Contextualizing Maternal Education and Child Health in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Role of Intimate Partner Violence

Spencer L. James (), Mckell A. Jorgensen Wells, Ashley Larsen Gibby, Jane Rose Njue, Timothy M. Rarick, Whitney Vogrinec and John V. Rautenbach
Additional contact information
Spencer L. James: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Mckell A. Jorgensen Wells: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Ashley Larsen Gibby: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
Jane Rose Njue: Human Development and Family Studies, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA
Timothy M. Rarick: Department of Home and Family, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg, ID 83460, USA
Whitney Vogrinec: School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
John V. Rautenbach: Department of Social Work, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa 3886, South Africa

Social Sciences, 2023, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: We examined how the relationship between maternal education and child health varies across women’s status and safety using pooled Demographic and Health Survey data from 24 sub-Saharan African countries. While maternal education was associated with less child stunting, wasting, and underweight, the effect of maternal education on stunting and underweight was attenuated among women who experienced high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV). Further, the positive influence of maternal education on stunting and underweight was less pronounced among women who lived in communities with higher levels of IPV, even after controlling for women’s own IPV. This suggests that the returns of maternal education may be dampened in the presence of IPV. The fact that this link operates at both individual and community levels underscores how gender norms, patriarchy, and gender-based violence stifle progress on children’s health. The results also demonstrate how the UN Sustainable Development Goals strengthening maternal education, improving child health, and reducing intimate partner violence must be jointly pursued and the importance of considering how child health outcomes may be tempered by context.

Keywords: maternal education; intimate partner violence; child nutrition; stunting; wasting; underweight; sub-Saharan Africa; sustainable development; SDGs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/324/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/6/324/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:12:y:2023:i:6:p:324-:d:1160542

Access Statistics for this article

Social Sciences is currently edited by Ms. Yvonne Chu

More articles in Social Sciences from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().