Parental Education and Child Health – Understanding the Pathways of Impact in Pakistan

The research aims to determine the causal relationship between parental schooling and health status of child in regards to height, weight and status of immunization by identifying different pathways that impact the knowledge of parents. Regression analysis is conducted on data generated from purpose-designed household survey92006-2007) in two provinces of Pakistan namely Punjab and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and results reveal that immunization is positively related to fathers education only while the health status of a child is determined by the educational status of the mother alone. .  Gender roles are prominently revealed through the analysis whereby the fathers role is associated with taking a one-off decision in child’s immunization and mothers role is associated with long term decisions in terms of weight and height.

Knowledge of health gathered by the father through schooling brings about a positive impact on immunization whereas women’s participation in the labor market, media exposure and health knowledge positively impact child’s height and empowerment granted to an educated women within a household positively impacts child’s weight. The study concludes that knowledge of health is a crucial channel through which parental education is translated into better child health and health seeking behavior.