Chronic undernutrition, short-term hunger, and student functioning in rural northwest China

Abstract

Chronic undernutrition and hunger remain significant problems for children, in global perspective, and may have important implications for children`s ability to function effectively at school. In this paper, we capitalize on a longitudinal data set of children in 100 villages in Gansu Province to estimate differences in achievement, behavior, and long-term persistence associated with chronic undernourishment and short term hunger. We show that chronic undernourishment and short-term hunger relate to children`s school functioning in distinct ways: chronically undernourished children have poorer literacy acquisition and subsequent school persistence, while children who report subjective hunger have more behavioral problems. © 2016