Children's nutrition in Jamaica: do household structure and household economic resources matter?

This study assesses the influence of household structure and resource dilution characteristics on children's nutritional status in Jamaica. The study has two objectives: (1) to compare the impact of different types of household structures (e.g. single parent, two parent, cohabiting and extended) on child nutrition (low height for age); and (2) to examine whether household structure and household resources interact to affect child nutrition in this context. We use data from the Jamaica 1996 Living Standards Measurement Study Survey and a series of logistic regression models to test hypotheses derived from the current child well-being literature. The results show that living in a single-parent household and a cohabiting household increases the odds of stunting for children. The analysis also indicates that children in single-parent low-income families with siblings and low-income extended families with siblings are more likely to have low height for age. The key policy implication that emerges from this study is that household structure is important for understanding children's nutritional outcomes in the Caribbean.