An analysis of the nutritional status of left-behind children in rural China and the impact mechanisms of child malnutrition.

• Using 2004–2015 CHNS dataset, this paper studies nutrition status of left-behind children in China. • This study employs the structural equation model to illustrate the multilevel impact mechanisms. • Children with mother working out suffer higher hazards of stunting and underweight. • Child individual factors and parental genetic factors have direct effects on child nutrition. • Parents' education influences indirectly through family income and household living facilities. With the rapid process of urbanization in China, a large wave of rural labor force has migrated to cities, leaving their children behind in villages. As a new vulnerable group, left-behind children's nutrition is facing more uncertainties. This paper investigates how left-behind status affects child malnutrition including stunting and underweight, using China Health and Nutrition Survey datasets (2004–2015). The multivariate regression results show that children (0–15 years) with mother working out suffer higher hazards of stunting and underweight than non-left-behind children, which highlights the essential role of mother as a caregiver. In addition, this study also employs the structural equation model to illustrate the multilevel impact mechanisms. Child individual factors (age, gender) and parental genetic factors (height, weight) have direct effects on child stunting and underweight rates, whereas parents' educational attainment influences indirectly through the mediator of family income and household living facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]