tailieunhanh - Differences by Mother's Education in the Effect of Childcare on Child Obesity

Previous studies have found that adverse effects of maternal employment on child obesity are limited to mothers with higher education and earnings. Explanations for this have centered on differences between the childhood nutritional and exercise environments provided by non-parental caregivers versus by the mothers. | WORKING P A P E R Differences by Mother s Education in the Effect of Childcare on Child Obesity ZAFAR NAZAROV AND MICHAEL S. RENDALL WR-890 November 2011 This paper series made possible by the NIA funded RAND Center for the Study of Aging P30AG012815 and the NICHD funded RAND Population Research Center R24HD050906 . This product is part of the RAND Labor and Population working paper series. RAND working papers are intended to share researchers latest findings and to solicit informal peer review. They have been approved for circulation by RAND Labor and Population but have not been formally edited or peer reviewed. Unless otherwise indicated working papers can be quoted and cited without permission of the author provided the source is clearly referred to as a working paper. RAND s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. RAND is a registered trademark. LABOR AND POPULATION Differences by mother s education in the effect of childcare on child obesity Zafar E. Nazarov1 and Michael S. Rendall2 Abstract Previous studies have found that adverse effects of maternal employment on child obesity are limited to mothers with higher education and earnings. Explanations for this have centered on differences between the childhood nutritional and exercise environments provided by non-parental caregivers versus by the mothers. The present study explores this non-parental care mechanism in a quasi-structural model of employment effects on child obesity transmitted through cumulative months of non-parental childcare over the child s pre-school years. Consistent with previous work we find that children age 2-18 whose mothers have 16 years or more years of education have a higher risk of obesity for each year of non-parental childcare. Additionally however we estimate that children whose mothers have less than 12 years of schooling have a lower risk of obesity for each year spent in a non-parental childcare setting. We .