This project will assess the effects of maternal caregiving on the health and nutritional status of children in a marginal rural area of highland Mexico. The relationships of mothering performance to socio-economic and demographic characteristics of households will be examined through the creation of statistical models for children of differing age levels in a massive data base of the Collaborative Research Support Program on Food Intake and Function in Mexico. Measures of maternal caregiving, household demographic and economic characteristics, and indicators of child health and nutrition will be derived from this data. This project is important because it will help us understand why some children in households have better health and nutritional status than other children in the same wealth categories. Obviously poverty is not the only cause of health and well being, and this research will help us understand the parts of the relationship having to do with maternal behavior.
