Mothers' community participation and child health

Type Journal Article - Journal of health and social behavior
Title Mothers' community participation and child health
Author(s)
Volume 50
Issue 1
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2009
Page numbers 16-30
URL http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/50/1/16.short
Abstract
We use rich data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey to assess the relationship between mothers' access to social capital via participation in community activities and their children's health. We exploit the advantages of longitudinal data and community fixed effects to mitigate some of the concerns about spuriousness and reverse causality that predominate in this literature. We find that children from families with relatively low levels of human and financial capital fare better with respect to health status when their mothers are more active participants in community organizations. In fact, the association between maternal participation and child health is strong and positive only for children from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds, as measured by their mothers' educational and household economic resources. The results suggest that in poorer settings community involvement may benefit disadvantaged families, possibly by providing resources and information that would otherwise be inaccessible.

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