On the Contribution of Mother’s Education to Children’s Nutritional Capabilities in Mozambique

This paper examines the role of mother’s education in expanding children’s nutritional capabilities in Mozambique, a country where both educational and nutritional deprivations are dramatic. The econometric results, based on data from the 2003 DHS survey, suggest that mother’s schooling is a key determinant of children’s nutrition, but its direct marginal contribution is declining after completion of primary education. Children whose mothers have completed primary education are far more likely to be well nourished than children whose mothers have lower or no educational attainments. Primary education works through the increase of mother’s general knowledge and, to a less extent, of her nutrition knowledge. Mother’s secondary schooling, instead, contributes only indirectly, by increasing household wealth. A further empirical analysis shows that there is no substantial difference in the benefits of mother’s education depending on whether she resides in urban or rural areas. Finally, the paper provides empirical evidence that female education is essential to improve children’s wellbeing in Mozambique, and that only a small part of this influence works through the traditional economic channel.Development economics; capability approach; nutrition; women’s education; Mozambique.

JAVANESE CULTURE DEPICTED IN THE USE OF KINSHIP ADDRESS TERMS

The Javanese system of kinship terms of address relies tightly on its social construction mirroring not only culture but also point of view of the Javanese people. It is undeniable that the society has long been structured vertically hierarchical. There is always upper to lower social relationship among social practices. Hence it is manifested in the form of Javanese speech levels illustrating that a speaker should consider both role and circumstance. The levels of speech presumably fall into some smaller linguistic features, one of which is address term particularly maintaining kinship relationship. Javanese culture considers ascending generation as the polar asserting that father’s/mother’s big brothers/sisters, father’s/mother’s big brother’s/sister’s sons/daughters, father’s/mother’s big brother’s/sister’s son’s/daughter’s sons/daughters would be addressed as all terms equivalent to big or older sibling

Attachment and children's biased attentional processing: evidence for the exclusion of attachment-related information

Research in both infants and adults demonstrated that attachment expectations are associated with the attentional processing of attachment-related information. However, this research suffered from methodological issues and has not been validated across ages. Employing a more ecologically valid paradigm to measure attentional processes by virtue of eye tracking, the current study tested the defensive exclusion hypothesis in late childhood. According to this hypothesis, insecurely attached children are assumed to defensively exclude attachment-related information. We hypothesized that securely attached children process attachment- related neutral and emotional information in a more open manner compared to insecurely attached children. Sixty-two children (59.7% girls, 8–12 years) completed two different tasks, while eye movements were recorded: task one presented an array of neutral faces including mother and unfamiliar women and task two presented the same with happy and angry faces. Results indicated that more securely attached children looked longer at mother’s face regardless of the emotional expression. Also, they tend to have more maintained attention to mother’s neutral face. Furthermore, more attachment avoidance was related to a reduced total viewing time of mother’s neutral, happy, and angry face. Attachment anxiety was not consistently related to the processing of mother’s face. Findings support the theoretical assumption that securely attached children have an open manner of processing all attachment-related information

Factors Affecting Childhood Immunisation in Bangladesh

This study has examined the coverage of childhood immunisation and tried to identify the factors affecting the acceptance of immunisation practice among children in Bangladesh using the data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 93-94. Results from multinomial logistic regression analysis indicate that education, occupation, household economic condition, mother’s age at birth, sex of child, mother’s TT immunisation acceptance, mother’s health facility visit, health worker’s visit to mothers, and contraceptive use are the independent variables that have statistically significant association with immunisation acceptance. The most important variable identified is the health worker’s visit to mothers.

Association between mother’s age and breastfeeding status in the northern Iran

Introduction: Breast milk provides the ideal nutrition for infant and it is more easily digested than infant formula. The main aim of this study is to determine breastfeeding status, exclusive breastfeeding, and their relation with mother’s age among under-five children in the north of Iran. Material and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, which was carried out in 1997 persons (535 = Fars-native, 773 = Turkman and 689 = Sisstani) from 20 villages in the north of Iran. The calculated sample sizes of 1800 respondents at least were needed for a 95% confidence and a maximum marginal error 0.02. Exclusive Breastfeeding Duration (EBFD) and Breastfeeding Duration (BFD) were classified based on WHO definitions. Results: BFD is 20.16 months and statistical difference is significant among three ethnic groups (p=0.001). Post hoc test are significant between Fars-native and Turkman (p=0.001), and between Turkman and Sisstani (p=0.002) and between Fars-native and Sisstani (p=0.024). EBFD is 5.77 months and statistical difference is significant among three ethnic groups (p=0.011). Post hoc test is significant between Turkman and Sisstani (p=0.027). As whole, duration of breastfeeding positively increased with mother’s age (p=0.002) but statistical association was not significant between exclusive breastfeeding duration and mother’s age. Conclusion: In rural area in the north of Iran, the EBFD and BFD were 5.74 and 20.16 months, respectively and they were in Turkman group more than in others. Mother’s age have a rising role for EBFD and BFD whereas in all of ethnic groups it was not the same. © 2015, Nepal Paediatric Society (NEPAS). All rights reserved

Can mothers judge the size of their newborn? Assessing the determinants of a mother's perception of a baby's size at birth

Birth weight is known to be closely related to child health, although as many infants in developing countries are not weighed at birth and thus will not have a recorded birth weight it is difficult to use birth weight when analysing child illness. It is common to use a proxy for birth weight instead, namely the mother’s perception of the baby’s size at birth. Using DHS surveys in Cambodia, Kazakhstan and Malawi the responses to this question were assessed to indicate the relationship between birth weight and mother’s perception. The determinants of perception were investigated using multilevel ordinal regression to gauge if they are different for infants with and without a recorded birth weight, and to consider if there are societal or community influences on perception of size. The results indicate that mother’s perception is closely linked to birth weight, although there are other influences on the classification of infants into size groups. On average, a girl of the same birth weight as a boy will be classified into a smaller size category. Likewise, infants who died by the time of the survey will be classified as smaller than similarly heavy infants who are still alive. There are significant variations in size perception between sampling districts and clusters, indicating that mothers mainly judge their child for size against a national norm. However, there is also evidence that the size of infants in the community around the newborn also has an effect on the final size perception classification. Overall the results indicate that mother’s perception of size is a good proxy for birth weight in large nationally representative surveys, although care should be taken to control for societal influences on perception

Olfaction scaffolds the developing human from neonate to adolescent and beyond

The impact of the olfactory sense is regularly apparent across development. The foetus is bathed in amniotic fluid that conveys the mother’s chemical ecology. Transnatal olfactory continuity between the odours of amniotic fluid and milk assists in the transition to nursing. At the same time, odours emanating from the mammary areas provoke appetitive responses in newborns. Odours experienced from the mother’s diet during breastfeeding, and from practices such as pre-mastication, may assist in the dietary transition at weaning. In parallel, infants are attracted to and recognise their mother’s odours; later, children are able to recognise other kin and peers based on their odours. Familiar odours, such as those of the mother, regulate the child’s emotions, and scaffold perception and learning through non-olfactory senses. During adolescence, individuals become more sensitive to some bodily odours, while the timing of adolescence itself has been speculated to draw from the chemical ecology of the family unit. Odours learnt early in life and within the family niche continue to influence preferences as mate choice becomes relevant. Olfaction thus appears significant in turning on, sustaining and, in cases when mother odour is altered, disturbing adaptive reciprocity between offspring and caregiver during the multiple transitions of development between birth and adolescence

The Relation among Parental Factors and Achievement of African American Urban Youth

Research has repeatedly suggested that SES is a major factor in diminishing academic achievement of African American urban youth; however, there are other factors also influencing children’s achievement. In an effort to examine how other factors contribute to academic achievement, this study, investigated a subsample of 60 low-resource middle school parents and students (41 boys and 19 girls). Several questions addressed the relation of SES to achievement, support, social support and mother’s well-being, respectively. Additionally, the relations between mother’s well-being, and students’ perceived monitoring by their parents, and negative learning attitudes were examined as were the perception of parental monitoring and academic achievement, negative learning attitudes and achievement. The results revealed a significant relation between perceived social support and mother’s well-being but in a negative direction. Parents reporting lower levels of well-being reported higher levels of social support. The results also revealed that youth who perceived their parents to monitor their activities more had higher levels of achievement. These findings illustrate the importance of the perceptions of adolescents as well as the potential role of parental monitoring on adolescents’ academic achievement. Although several factors were examined, only those factors with significant relationships will be discussed