The influence of maternal agency on severe child undernutrition in conflict-ridden Nigeria: Modeling heterogeneous treatment effects with machine learning.

ABSTRACT: Nigeria is one of the fastest growing African economies, yet struggles with armed conflict, poverty, and morbidity. An area of high concern is how this situation affects vulnerable families and their children. A key pathway in improving the situation for children in times of conflict is to reinforce maternal agency, for instance, through education. However, the state of the art of research lacks a clear understanding of how many years of education is needed before children benefit. Due to mother's differing social context and ability, the effect of maternal education varies. We study the heterogeneous treatment effects of maternal agency, here operationalized as length of education, on severe child undernutrition in the context of armed conflict. We deploy a repeated cross-sectional study

SUBMITTER: Kraamwinkel N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6326456 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature