The increased prevalence of childhood obesity is a major concern for society. This
study aims at exploring the influence of the parents (especially parental time allocation
choices) on childrenâÂÂs obesity-related health outcomes and examining the potential
differences between the fathersâ and the mothersâ marginal effects.
A household with two parents and one child is modeled. The household production
theory and the collective household modeling structure are combined. The model treats
the mother, the father and the child as three separate agents with individual preferences.
The two parentsâ interaction is modeled within the collective model framework by
assuming that they will reach Pareto efficient resource allocation between them. In order
to capture the dynamics between parents and the child, parents-child interaction is
modeled in a two-stage Stackleberg game structure where the child is allowed to have
certain decision choices of his/her own. This game structure allows us to explore the
parental influence on the childâÂÂs health outcomes while allowing the child to have
influencing power in the household decision-making process. Based on this theoretical model, a general triangular system with one childâÂÂs health
production equation and five health inputs demand equations is derived and estimated.
The empirical estimation is performed for three systems: pooled model, the younger
children model (of age 9 to 11), and the older children model (of age 13 to 15).
The empirical results show mother-related variables show more influence on the
childâÂÂs Body Mass Index (BMI) outcomes compared to father-related variables:
mothersâ BMI and mothersâ work-to-home stress spillover are positively related to their
childrenâÂÂs BMI while mothersâ time spent with their children is negatively related to
their childrenâÂÂs BMI. There exists a complementary relationship between mothersâÂÂ
income and fathersâ food preparation time. In the older children model, mothersâ own
income increases tend to decrease their time spent with their children.
The main contribution of this study is that it develops a general theoretical
framework to capture the dynamics in parents-child interaction. Based on this theoretical
model, empirical analysis and future work can be conducted in a theoretically consistent
way.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/5017 |
| Date | 25 April 2007 |
| Creators | You, Wen |
| Contributors | Davis, George C., M., Nayga Jr., Rodolfo |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 489148 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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