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

Autor: Rautenbach, Spencer L. James, Mckell A. Jorgensen Wells, Ashley Larsen Gibby, Jane Rose Njue, Timothy M. Rarick, Whitney Vogrinec, John V.
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Social Sciences; Volume 12; Issue 6; Pages: 324
ISSN: 2076-0760
DOI: 10.3390/socsci12060324
Popis: 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.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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