Maternal breastfeeding and children's cognitive development
- PMID: 28672220
- DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.06.012
Maternal breastfeeding and children's cognitive development
Abstract
Do children with lower test scores benefit more from breastfeeding than those with higher scores? In this paper, I examine the distributional effects of maternal breastfeeding on the cognitive test scores of 11,544 children who were born in 2000 and 2001 in the United Kingdom using a semiparametric quantile regression model. I find evidence that maternal breastfeeding has larger positive impacts on children with lower test scores. Effects for children below the 20th percentile are about 2-2.5 times greater than those for children above the 80th percentile. I also find that these distributional effects are larger when the duration of breastfeeding is extended. One policy implication is that a public policy aims at promoting breastfeeding might narrow a disparity in children's cognition.
Keywords: Children's development; Distributional effects; Maternal breastfeeding; Semiparametric quantile regression; United Kingdom.
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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