Effects of Early Life Nutrition and Poverty on School Attendance and Completed Schooling of the Vietnamese Adolescents

Phuong L. Nguyen, University of Minnesota

The most controversial conclusions focus on the causation that poor nutrition in childhood, especially in the first two yeas of life leads to delay in primary school enrollment, repeated grades, impaired cognitive development, and negative school outcomes (Glewwe et al. 2001, Daniels and Adair 2004). This paper discusses the effects of middle childhood nutrition status and level of household poverty on school attendance and completed schooling using an individual-based subsample of 1,517 children aged 15 to 17 in 1998 from the VNLSS of 1992-93 and 1997-98. Results from multivariate analysis reconfirm that parental education still remains the most important determinant of school attendance and educational attainment. The level of household poverty and stunting at middle childhood have significant effects on probability of school attendance and educational achievement. However, these effects lose statistical significance when the household poverty level is controlled in the model.