Mothers' Social Status and Children's Health: Evidence From Joint Households in Rural India.

ABSTRACT: The premise that a woman's social status has intergenerational effects on her children's health has featured prominently in population science research and in development policy. This study focuses on an important case in which social hierarchy has such an effect. In joint patrilocal households in rural India, women married to the younger brother are assigned lower social rank than women married to the older brother in the same household. Almost 8% of rural Indian children under 5 years old-more than 6 million children-live in such households. We show that children of lower-ranking mothers are less likely to survive and have worse health outcomes, reflected in higher neonatal mortality and shorter height, compared with children of higher-ranking mothers in the same household. That the vari

SUBMITTER: Coffey D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10355193 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature