Re-Examining the Effect of Maternal Employment on Child Overweight: The Case of School-Age Children
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Re‑Examining the Effect of Maternal Employment on Child Overweight: The Case of School‑Age Children Bezawit T. Agiro1 · Wei‑Chiao Huang2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract This paper investigated the effect of maternal employment on childhood overweight in the United States using a sample of school-age children. We used data from the spring 2013 cohort of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011). We estimated a recursive bivariate probit model using exogenous variation in the youngest sibling’s eligibility for kindergarten as an instrument for maternal employment. As a robustness check, instrumental variable regression using 2SLS estimation technique and IV probit regression were also used. The findings suggest that the effect of maternal employment on child overweight is not significant. The results showed that rather than maternal employment, socioeconomic status, schooling environment, life style behaviors including physical exercise and sedentary behavior were significant factors contributing to child overweight. More specifically, higher socioeconomic status and doing physical exercise more frequently were negatively related to child overweight, while sedentary behavior and free/reduced price school meals were positively related to child overweight. Keywords Child overweight · Maternal employment · Socioeconomic status · Life-style behavior
Introduction The problem of rising child overweight poses a serious concern in many industrialized countries including the United States. Currently, it is estimated that one in seven children is overweight or obese in most European Union Countries (Gwozdz et al. 2013). Similarly, more than one third of children and adolescents in the United States are overweight or obese (Ogden et al. 2014). The problem of child overweight is not limited only to undesirable looks, it has serious health implications as well. Previous studies showed that child overweight was associated with illnesses including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, stroke, musculo-skeletal disorders and mental health problems (Gwozdz et al. 2013). In addition, childhood overweight has an impact on long-term psychological * Wei‑Chiao Huang [email protected] 1
Department of Revenue, State of Nebraska, 301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE 68509, USA
Department of Economics, Western Michigan University, 1903 Western Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA
2
conditions such as depression and low self-esteem as well as labor market outcomes including discrimination and lower wages (Daniels 2006; Mocan and Tekin 2009). The reasons behind the rise in child overweight are manifold, but the main ones include sedentary lifestyle, technological advancement, and expansion of fast food restaurants (Chou et al. 2008; Cutler et al. 2003; Philipson and Posner 2003). Interestingly it appears that, the rise in female labor force participation coincided with the rise in child overw
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