Disentangling the Effects of Maternal Employment on Child Stunting in the Philippines

Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of maternal employment, along with mother’s education, civil status, and wealth, and the child’s age, sex, number of siblings, and regional dummy variable, on child stunting in the Philippines. It uses logit regression and data from the 8th National Nutrition Survey 2015 of the Department of Science and Technology-Food and Nutritional Research Institute. Interaction variables are mother’s years of schooling, work, civil status, and age. It supports the literature that maternal employment increases the likelihood of stunting among children. However, the results show a decrease in the likelihood of child stunting if employed mothers acquired a higher level of education. The probability of stunting increases with the number of children in the household and decreases with wealth.