BREASTFEEDING AND CHILDREN'S EARLY COGNITIVE OUTCOMES

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Rothstein, Donna S.
• 署名单位: United States Department of Labor
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00282
• 发表日期: 2013-07
• 页码: 919-931
• 关键词: technology

摘要

This paper investigates whether breastfeeding affects 5- to 6-year old children's cognitive development using three U.S. longitudinal data sets. The results for the full samples roughly point to a dose-response effect of breastfeeding on children's cognitive outcomes, with breastfeeding six months or more associated with about one-tenth of a standard deviation increase in cognitive test scores. The breastfeeding effects do not appear to be due to differences in maternal employment, cognitive ability, or parenting skills. In contrast, within-sibling results show no statistically significant breastfeeding effect.