Female autonomy and child nutritional status: The extended-family residential unit in Amman, Jordan

This study explores the hypothesis that the mother's position within household power relations--her autonomy with respect to other household members--influences her ability to provide for the health of her children. We argue that in the context of the Arab Middle East, a woman's structural position within the household is a good indicator of her relative autonomy: if she if the daughter-in-law in a vertically extended residential unit, she has less autonomy than if she is head or co-head of household. Our analysis is based on data collected from 1341 households in 1985 as a part of the Follow-up Health and Population Assessment of four urban settlements in Amman, Jordan. They include measures of the child's weight and age, plus a variety of socioeconomic factors. We analyze the effect of the mother's autonomy on child nutritional status within a multiple regression framework that controls for rival hypotheses. In particular, we investigate whether it is the availability of other potential child-care substitutes, particularly the grandmother, that influences child nutrition rather than household structure. We also look at household income, mother's education, the area of residence, and the child's sex. Our results show a strong negative influence associated with having a mother whose autonomy in the household is low. This effect does not disappear when mother's age and education, and household size and composition are taken into consideration. Nor is it a proxy for the higher household incomes characteristics of extended-family residential units with their multiple earners.