The impact of family structure and family income on child physical health in China

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between child health and family income and family structure. The main use of the Height-for-Age Z score (HAZ) indicator and whether the child has been sick in the past four weeks (Ill) is used as an indicator to measure children's physical health. The main explanatory variables are family income and family structure. In terms of family structure, we mainly focus on the special group of single-parent families. In addition, it also explores other factors that affect children's health, such as demographic factors, sociological factors, and economic factors. This research will link children's health with family income and family structure, trying to explore the influencing factors and paths of children's physical health from the perspective of family.

The data used in this research is secondary data from the Peking University Open Database. Its name is the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). This study uses CFPS2016 cross-sectional data. After data clean, the sample comprised 4,513 children. Multiple linear regression models (OLS) are used to study the relationship between child health (long-term) and family income and family structure and the Binary logit regression is used to study the relationship between child health (short-term) and family income and family structure. The significance of variables was tested at a P-value of 10 percent and 90 percent Confidence interval.

The results of the study found that family structure has a significant effect on the HAZ value, and children from single-father parent families have significant disadvantages compared to children from the dual-parent family. The impact of family income on children's health is positive, the higher the family income, the greater the HAZ value. Short-term child health has no significant correlation with family structure and family income. The results can help to provide some useful information in particular special attention can be given to certain family types to improve the health of children.