Child stunting, thinness, and their academic performance in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study

Getenet  Dessie; Jinhu Li; Son Nghiem; Tinh Doan

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118050

Child stunting, thinness, and their academic performance in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study

Getenet Dessie, Jinhu Li, Son Nghiem, Tinh Doan

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Background The link between stunting, thinness, and academic performance in Ethiopia remains underexplored. The current study analyses a large and longitudinal dataset to estimate the relationship between thinness, stunting, and children's academic performance in Ethiopia. Method Data from the Young Lives Study, a longitudinal survey conducted from 2002 to 2016 in Ethiopia, were analyzed. We focused on child academic outcomes measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and math scores. We used the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as our model in this study. Result Our system GMM estimates revealed that stunted children had significantly lower PPVT scores by 0.13 units compared to non-stunted peers (β = -0.13, p

Original language	English
Journal	Social Science and Medicine
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118050
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 2025

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10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118050

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625003806

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title = "Child stunting, thinness, and their academic performance in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study",

abstract = "Background The link between stunting, thinness, and academic performance in Ethiopia remains underexplored. The current study analyses a large and longitudinal dataset to estimate the relationship between thinness, stunting, and children's academic performance in Ethiopia. Method Data from the Young Lives Study, a longitudinal survey conducted from 2002 to 2016 in Ethiopia, were analyzed. We focused on child academic outcomes measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and math scores. We used the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as our model in this study. Result Our system GMM estimates revealed that stunted children had significantly lower PPVT scores by 0.13 units compared to non-stunted peers (β = -0.13, p",

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AU - Dessie, Getenet

AU - Li, Jinhu

AU - Nghiem, Son

AU - Doan, Tinh

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Background The link between stunting, thinness, and academic performance in Ethiopia remains underexplored. The current study analyses a large and longitudinal dataset to estimate the relationship between thinness, stunting, and children's academic performance in Ethiopia. Method Data from the Young Lives Study, a longitudinal survey conducted from 2002 to 2016 in Ethiopia, were analyzed. We focused on child academic outcomes measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and math scores. We used the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as our model in this study. Result Our system GMM estimates revealed that stunted children had significantly lower PPVT scores by 0.13 units compared to non-stunted peers (β = -0.13, p

AB - Background The link between stunting, thinness, and academic performance in Ethiopia remains underexplored. The current study analyses a large and longitudinal dataset to estimate the relationship between thinness, stunting, and children's academic performance in Ethiopia. Method Data from the Young Lives Study, a longitudinal survey conducted from 2002 to 2016 in Ethiopia, were analyzed. We focused on child academic outcomes measured by the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and math scores. We used the system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) as our model in this study. Result Our system GMM estimates revealed that stunted children had significantly lower PPVT scores by 0.13 units compared to non-stunted peers (β = -0.13, p

KW - Child stunting

KW - thinness

KW - academic performance

KW - Ethiopia

U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118050

DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118050

M3 - Article

SN - 0277-9536

JO - Social Science and Medicine

JF - Social Science and Medicine

ER -

Child stunting, thinness, and their academic performance in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study

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