The effect of orphan-hood on the nutritional and educational status of children in Zambia

Abstract

The death of a parent occasion's severe trauma on a child. The loss a parent causes emotional distress and deprives the orphaned child of nurturing, values, information and discipline. The loss of a productive household member also diminishes the financial resources available for investment in child health and education. This paper investigated the effect of orphanhood on the educational and nutritional status of children using a pooled cross-sectional data from Zambia for 1996 and 2002. We found that double and maternal orphanhood reduces the likelihood that a child is enrolled in school, while paternal orphanhood has no effect on the educational status of children. An explanation for this result is that mothers are the gatekeepers for their children's education, when mothers are gone, no other caregiver is as vigilant in ensuring that children get to school or that money for school fees and uniforms is found. We also found that all types of orphanhood increase the likelihood that a child becomes wasted. This confirms that orphanhood affects the short-term nutritional status of children. On the other hand the study found that maternal and double orphanhood has a significant effect on the probability that a child becomes stunted, while paternal orphanhood has no effect. The above results can be explained in two ways; Loss of a parent leads to a fall in household income resulting in poor feeding of children. Secondly parental deaths result in changes in household resource allocation away from feeding of children to other uses. The paper also found that the greatest effect of parental deaths falls on double orphans. Lastly, the study found that children living in 2002 were more likely to become wasted, stunted or not attending school compared to those in 1996. This paper concludes that orphanhood adversely affects children's schooling and nutritional status.