PMID- 38237431
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20240214
LR  - 20240214
IS  - 1873-6130 (Electronic)
IS  - 1570-677X (Linking)
VI  - 52
DP  - 2024 Jan
TI  - Birth order and children's health and learning outcomes in India.
PG  - 101348
LID - S1570-677X(23)00129-6 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101348 [doi]
AB  - India has a high prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age, 
      despite marginal improvement over the years. In 2019-21, 35.5 per cent of 
      children below five years were stunted (National Family Health Survey (NFHS), 
      2019-21). This has been attributed to several factors including open defecation, 
      poor maternal nutrition and food insecurity. This paper examines if the birth 
      order of children is associated with variation in height among them, using 
      nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS 2005 
      & 2011). The objectives of this paper are to: (i) assess the association of a 
      child's birth order with height (ii) test if the association of birth order with 
      height changes with the degree of son preference (iii) analyse the relationship 
      between birth order and educational outcomes of children. Our results suggest 
      that (i) the height-for-age z score is negatively associated with the birth order 
      of the child (ii) the negative association of birth order with height is stronger 
      for mothers who have a moderate or high degree of son preference, especially when 
      children have an older brother (iii) maternal characteristics such as education 
      could mitigate the negative relationship between birth order and height when son 
      preference is low but not when son preference is high (iv) birth order has a 
      negative association with the reading, writing and mathematical ability of 
      children, especially if the child was stunted in childhood. This indicates that 
      the fertility behaviour of families has both a direct and an indirect impact, 
      which could influence both long term nutrition and education of children.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
FAU - Chandna, Arjita
AU  - Chandna A
AD  - Centre for International Trade and Development, School of International Studies, 
      Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110067, India.
FAU - Bhagowalia, Priya
AU  - Bhagowalia P
AD  - Centre for International Trade and Development, School of International Studies, 
      Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110067, India. 
      Electronic address: bhagowalia@alumni.purdue.edu.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20231231
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Econ Hum Biol
JT  - Economics and human biology
JID - 101166135
SB  - IM
MH  - Male
MH  - Female
MH  - Child
MH  - Humans
MH  - Infant
MH  - Child, Preschool
MH  - *Birth Order
MH  - Child Health
MH  - Mothers
MH  - Nutritional Status
MH  - Prevalence
MH  - *Malnutrition
MH  - India/epidemiology
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Birth order
OT  - Education
OT  - Height for age
OT  - India
OT  - Nutrition
OT  - Son preference
COIS- Declaration of Competing Interest None.
EDAT- 2024/01/19 00:42
MHDA- 2024/02/10 10:48
CRDT- 2024/01/18 18:11
PHST- 2023/04/21 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2023/12/16 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2023/12/28 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2024/02/10 10:48 [medline]
PHST- 2024/01/19 00:42 [pubmed]
PHST- 2024/01/18 18:11 [entrez]
AID - S1570-677X(23)00129-6 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101348 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Econ Hum Biol. 2024 Jan;52:101348. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2023.101348. Epub 2023 Dec 
      31.