Full Citation
Title: ARMED CONFLICT AND CHILDHOOD FOOD SECURITY THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN EXPOSURE TO CONFLICT AND CHILDHOOD NUTRITION IN WEST AFRICA: 1998-2008
Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis
Publication Year: 2020
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ISSN: 1998-2008
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Abstract: Exposure to conflict is associated with multiple impacts on youth populations in developing countries, predominantly in the areas of health and nutrition. Where many previous works have examined large-scale impacts of exposure to conflict on the civilian population, this study will analyze the effects of exposure to conflict specific to the experiences of children under the age of five. Where experiences of armed conflict are often indiscriminately destructive to individual well-being, West African conflicts have been characterized by disproportionately high levels of violence, with their most extreme consequences forced upon women and children. Research has suggested that accepted gender norms and levels of women’s agency may be strongly associated with children’s health responses to exposure to increased violence and conflict. To test this association this thesis assumes a critical analysis of reduced educational attainment and low marital age among women in relation to the effects of conflict on measures of childhood food security. Through the use of high-resolution conflict data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Database (ACLED) and the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), this thesis examines the effects of armed conflict on children under five years of age across seven West African nations. Along with previous works exploring the relationship between conflict and childhood nutrition, this study finds a negative, albeit small and statistically insignificant, impact on measures of weight-for-height (WFH). Surprisingly, there is a significant and positive response in children’s height-for-age (HFA) associated with exposure to conflict during one’s lifetime.
Url: https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/21682
User Submitted?: No
Authors: Hancock, Matthew
Institution: The Pennsylvania State University
Department: Sociology
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Data Collections: IPUMS Global Health - DHS
Topics: Health, Other
Countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria