Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Schooling and Alternative Life Courses in Ethiopia

研究生Edward G. Stevenson在Carol M. Worthman博士的指导下，将在埃塞俄比亚南部一个社区调查教育、人生计划和健康行为之间的关系，该社区最近才开始提供学校教育。教育，特别是女童教育，已被证明对降低儿童死亡率具有强大的作用。但是，教育与儿童健康改善之间的联系还没有得到很好的理解。一些研究表明，改善家庭卫生行为或增加卫生服务的使用可能是解释这种影响的重要因素。母亲接受教育后，儿童喂养和营养状况也可能发生变化。这些行为变化的基础可能在于上过学的人规划人生道路的方式。例如，对于母亲来说，生育第二个孩子的时间对于决定何时断奶很重要。这个项目将通过采访和涉及图片卡的方法来评估人们对生命历程的看法。为了评估健康行为，研究人员将收集有关就诊频率、家庭卫生和儿童喂养习惯的信息。项目工作人员还将监测婴儿在18个月期间的生长状况。通过比较上学家庭和未上学家庭在人生计划、家庭保健做法和婴儿成长方面的差异，该项目旨在促进了解教育和儿童健康之间的联系。该项目是比较人类生物学实验室成员正在进行的一项更大的研究计划的一部分，该计划的主题是社会机会和剥夺对美国和非洲年轻人对人生历程的看法的影响。

Graduate student, Edward G. Stevenson, supervised by Dr. Carol M. Worthman, will investigate the relationship between education, life plans, and health behaviors in a community in southern Ethiopia where schooling has only recently become available. Education, and especially girls' education, has been shown to have a powerful effect on lowering child mortality. But the connection between education and improvement in children's health is not well understood. Some research suggests that improved domestic health behaviors, or increased use of health services, may be important in explaining this effect. Child feeding and child nutrition status may also change when mothers have been educated. A basis for these behavior changes may lie in the way that people who have been to school plan their life course. For mothers, the timing of having another baby, for example, can be important in determining when to wean the previous child. This project will assess people's views of the life course through interviews and through a method involving picture cards. To assess health behaviors, researchers will collect information on frequency of visits to health clinics, domestic hygiene, and child feeding practices. Project staff will also monitor infants' growth status over a period of 18 months. By comparing variation in life plans, domestic health practices, and infant growth between households where people have been to school and those where people have not, this project aims to contribute to understanding how education and child health are connected. The project forms part of a larger program of research being conducted by members of the Laboratory for Comparative Human Biology on the effects of social opportunities and deprivation on youths' views of the life course in the USA and Africa.