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Maternal labour supply and childhood obesity in Canada: evidence from the NLSCY

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  • Yee Fei Chia

Abstract

. This paper investigates the socioeconomic factors affecting childhood overweight and obesity in Canada using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. In particular, I attempt to address the issue of whether an increase in the mother's work intensity is associated with an increase in the risk of the child's becoming overweight or obese. I also attempt to evaluate the causality of this relationship and the mechanisms that might facilitate this link. The results suggest that an increase in the mother's work intensity when she first returned to work in the period after the child's birth and before the child started school is associated with an increase in the risk of the child's becoming overweight or obese later in childhood. Conditional on the mother returning to work in the period between the child's birth and the start of school for the child, a 10‐hour increase in the number of hours worked per week when the mother first returned to work is associated with an increase in the probability that the child later becomes overweight or obese that is in the range of 2.5 to 4 percentage points. Ce mémoire analyse les facteurs socio‐économiques qui affectent l'excès de poids et l'obésité des enfants au Canada à l'aide des données de l'ELNEJ. En particulier, on se demande si un accroissement de l'intensité de travail de la mère est associéà l'accroissement de poids et à l'obésité de l'enfant. On étudie le lien de causalité et les mécanismes qui sous‐tendent ce lien. Les résultats montrent qu'un accroissement de l'intensité de travail de la mère quand elle retourne au travail dans la période après la naissance de l'enfant et avant qu'il ne commence ses classes est associéà la probabilité d'excès de poids et d'obésité plus tard : un accroissement de 10 heures dans le nombre d'heures travaillées par semaine est associéà une probabilité de 2.5 à 4 points de pourcentage que l'enfant va avoir des problèmes de poids ou d'obésité.

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  • Yee Fei Chia, 2008. "Maternal labour supply and childhood obesity in Canada: evidence from the NLSCY," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 217-242, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:41:y:2008:i:1:p:217-242
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.00461.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Miller, 2011. "Maternal Work and Child Overweight and Obesity: The Importance of Timing," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 204-218, June.
    2. Shelly Lundberg & Aloysius Siow, 2017. "Canadian contributions to family economics," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1304-1323, December.
    3. Gwozdz, Wencke & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Reisch, Lucia A. & Ahrens, Wolfgang & Eiben, Gabriele & M. Fernandéz-Alvira, Juan & Hadjigeorgiou, Charalampos & De Henauw, Stefaan & Kovács, Eva & Lauria, Fabio, 2013. "Maternal employment and childhood obesity – A European perspective," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 728-742.
    4. Milovanska-Farrington, Stefani, 2020. "Parents labor supply and childhood obesity: Evidence from Scotland," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    5. Morrissey, Taryn W., 2013. "Trajectories of growth in body mass index across childhood: Associations with maternal and paternal employment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 60-68.
    6. Haeil Jung & Chaeyoung Chang, 2016. "Is Mothers’ Work Related to Childhood Weight Changes in the United States?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 581-593, December.
    7. Datar, Ashlesha & Nicosia, Nancy & Shier, Victoria, 2014. "Maternal work and children's diet, activity, and obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 196-204.
    8. Georgia S. Papoutsi & Andreas C. Drichoutis & Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr., 2013. "The Causes Of Childhood Obesity: A Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 743-767, September.
    9. Peng Nie & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2014. "Maternal employment and childhood obesity in China: evidence from the China Health and Nutrition Survey," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(20), pages 2418-2428, July.
    10. Kazakova, Yuliya, 2022. "Maternal employment and childhood obesity in Russia," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    11. Angela Fertig & Gerhard Glomm & Rusty Tchernis, 2009. "The connection between maternal employment and childhood obesity: inspecting the mechanisms," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 227-255, September.
    12. Cawley, John & Liu, Feng, 2012. "Maternal employment and childhood obesity: A search for mechanisms in time use data," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 352-364.
    13. Sen, Anindya & Entezarkheir, Mahdiyeh & Wilson, Alan, 2010. "Obesity, smoking, and cigarette taxes: Evidence from the Canadian Community Health Surveys," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(2-3), pages 180-186, October.
    14. Mohammad Jakaria & Rejaul Karim Bakshi & M. Mehedi Hasan, 2022. "Is maternal employment detrimental to children’s nutritional status? Evidence from Bangladesh," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 85-111, February.
    15. Fouzia & Durdana Qaiser Gillani & Shahbaz Ahmad, 2021. "Impact of Female Employment and Education on Child Health Care: A Case Study of Pakistan," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 107-112.
    16. Jens Bonke & Jane Greve, 2012. "Children’s health-related life-styles: how parental child care affects them," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 557-572, December.
    17. Y. F. Chia, 2013. "Dollars and pounds: the impact of family income on childhood weight," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(14), pages 1931-1941, May.
    18. Brown, Judith E. & Broom, Dorothy H. & Nicholson, Jan M. & Bittman, Michael, 2010. "Do working mothers raise couch potato kids? Maternal employment and children's lifestyle behaviours and weight in early childhood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(11), pages 1816-1824, June.
    19. Greve, Jane, 2011. "New results on the effect of maternal work hours on children's overweight status: Does the quality of child care matter?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 579-590, October.
    20. Ziol-Guest, Kathleen M. & Dunifon, Rachel E. & Kalil, Ariel, 2013. "Parental employment and children's body weight: Mothers, others, and mechanisms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 52-59.

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