Determinants of the Under-five Child's Physical Well-being in Morocco: The Case of Fertility

Abstract

It is very remarkable that interest in the physical well-being of children and the underlying factors that affect it is growing. Therefore, this paper attempt to shed light on some aspects of children's well-being in Morocco and what influences it. Statistical data collected by the 2011 National Demographic and Health Survey (individual child data) and the 2014 Census (municipal data) are used. Physical well-being includes health status, nutrition, preventative health care, as well as physical activity and safety. However, the choice of the most relevant indicators of child's physical well-being is limited by the availability and the representativeness of data. A principal component analysis (PCA) was applied. It permits us to explore the association between children's well-being and the total fertility rate. Also, it takes into account other socio-economic indicators, all measured at the macro level. In addition, the PCA approach has been applied to a set of child well-being measures and the first factorial axis scores were retained as a composite indicator of the child's well-being. This composite index of the child's physical well-being was used as the dependent variable in a multiple regression analysis. The main conclusions are: 1- The city characteristic of the area of residence improves children's chances of enjoying a certain standard of well-being. 2- Child well-being is adversely correlated with the level of fertility and the rate of illiteracy at the municipal level. 3- The regression model confirmed the links between fertility (measured by both individual and contextual indicators) and child well-being. The regression analysis also highlights the impact of the child's mother's level of education, the child's mother's professional status and the place of residence.