Table 12.
Exploring potential explanations: fertility and dietary indicators
| Dependent variable (unit) | Number of children (number) | Child dietary diversity score (0–7) | Maternal diet diversity (0–7) | Exclusive breastfeeding months 0–5 (0/1) | Mother has low BMI (0/1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Larger maternal benefits?a | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Maternal education | |||||
| 4–6 years | −0.261∗∗∗ | 0.078∗∗∗ | 0.029 | 0.000 | −0.006∗∗∗ |
| (0.010) | (0.026) | (0.024) | (0.005) | (0.002) | |
| 7–9 years | −0.446∗∗∗ | 0.129∗∗∗ | 0.045 | −0.004 | −0.006∗∗ |
| (0.013) | (0.035) | (0.030) | (0.006) | (0.002) | |
| 10–12 years | −0.830∗∗∗ | 0.151∗∗∗ | 0.065 | −0.006 | −0.005∗ |
| (0.016) | (0.047) | (0.040) | (0.008) | (0.003) | |
| 13+ years | −1.393∗∗∗ | 0.185∗∗∗ | 0.106∗∗ | −0.012 | −0.009∗∗ |
| (0.022) | (0.061) | (0.052) | (0.010) | (0.004) | |
| Paternal education | |||||
| 4–6 years | −0.122∗∗∗ | 0.023 | 0.032 | 0.002 | −0.009∗∗∗ |
| (0.010) | (0.026) | (0.023) | (0.005) | (0.002) | |
| 7–9 years | −0.166∗∗∗ | 0.038 | 0.069∗∗ | 0.005 | −0.014∗∗∗ |
| (0.012) | (0.031) | (0.028) | (0.005) | (0.002) | |
| 10–12 years | −0.277∗∗∗ | 0.051 | 0.080∗∗ | 0.004 | −0.016∗∗∗ |
| (0.016) | (0.041) | (0.035) | (0.007) | (0.003) | |
| 13 + years | −0.352∗∗∗ | 0.044 | 0.129∗∗∗ | 0.005 | −0.021∗∗∗ |
| (0.020) | (0.052) | (0.045) | (0.008) | (0.004) | |
| Education ranks | |||||
| Maternal | 0.058∗∗∗ | 0.127∗∗ | 0.145∗∗∗ | 0.015 | −0.007∗ |
| (0.021) | (0.058) | (0.048) | (0.009) | (0.004) | |
| Paternal | 0.055∗∗∗ | 0.096∗ | 0.077∗ | −0.007 | −0.005 |
| (0.020) | (0.053) | (0.046) | (0.009) | (0.004) | |
| R-squared | 0.557 | 0.29 | 0.019 | 0.061 | 0.014 |
| N | 668,066 | 103,936 | 69,432 | 60,109 | 603,624 |
Source: Authors’ estimates from DHS data. See text for details.
Notes: Cluster-robust standard errors reported in parenthesis. ∗, ∗∗, and ∗∗∗ indicate significance at the 10%, 5% and 1% significance levels respectively. The regression models are analogous to regression 3 from Table 3.