Maternal Education and Child Mortality: Exploring the Pathways of Influence

Kriti Vikram, University of Maryland
Sonalde B. Desai, University of Maryland
Reeve Vanneman, University of Maryland

Although correlations between parental education and child health have been observed to be moderate to strong in diverse parts of the world, the causal pathways remain far from clear. The paper seeks to examine the possible pathways that mediate the impact of maternal education on neonatal, infant and child mortality. We argue that acquisition of education leads to better human, social and cultural capitals among the mothers, which will be associated with increased child survival. Additionally, we seek to test whether higher education of the mother is associated with greater physical and decision-making autonomy for her within the household, which may lead to better health outcomes for the child. We use the India Human Development Survey 2005, a nationally representative survey rich in detailed measures of each pathway included in the model.