Parental Investment and Socioeconomic Status Influences on Children's Height in Honduras: An Analysis of National Data

l Objectives: This research analyzes variation in children's height-for-age z-scores from a nationally representative sample of children from Honduras in 2006. This work draws on theoretical perspectives from parental investment theory to describe the mediating effects that parental investment may have on children's health and nutrition, even in low socioeconomic status households. Methods: This research uses the 2006 Demographic and Health Survey for the country of Honduras. The dependent variable is the child's height-for-age z-score (HFAZ). Variation in the HFAZ is analyzed using multiple regression and multilevel regression models to incorporate individual, family and higher-level predictors. Results: The findings suggest that children who are more invested in by their parents had better outcomes (HFAZ) than children whose parents did not invest as much. Of the three measures of parental investment used in this study, child wantedness and adequate prenatal care represented significant effects on children's HFAZ, and breastfeeding duration exhibited an interactive effect with household socioeconomic status. Conclusions: Results suggest that families that can invest more in their children through breastfeeding and sufficient prenatal care can mediate the negative effects of poor socioeconomic status on their children's health. This suggests that these measures of investment used here may be effective at mediating the negative effects of low socioeconomic status for this particular child health outcome. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 23:80-88, 2011. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.