Emily Smith?Greenaway
Mothers' reading skills and child survival in Nigeria: Examining the relevance of mothers' decision-making power
Pennsylvania State University
mothers literacy skills emerging key determinant childrens health survival lowincome contexts emphasis cognitive psychological agency literacy skills provide work clearly established strong association mothers reading skillsa key subcomponent broader literacy language skillsand child mortality however relatively nascent literature yet considered broader social structures condition process nigeria subsaharan africa broadly genderbased social inequality constrains many mothers decisionmaking power childrens health matters structural feature may condition association mothers reading skills child mortality paper uses data 2003 nigerian demographic health survey n 12076 test conditionality relationship mothers reading skills child survival mothers decisionmaking power highlighting structural realities factor heavily individualactionoriented literature among nigerian children whose mothers decisionmaking power mothers reading skills convey 27 percent lower risk child mortality however children whose mothers lack decisionmaking power mothers reading skills yield significant survival advantage overall findings support need future work analyze broader social structures condition benefits mothers reading skills childrens health