Homeschooling and Child Overweight

                                 

Homeschooling and Child Overweight

Rahi Abouk

 

Homeschooling, which is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, has received some attention by researchers, but there has been no study of the potential health benefits.  Given that homeschooled children receive more close supervision and guidance from parents, get homemade meals, and perhaps are less exposed to communicable illnesses, a benefit is possible. Instrumental variable (IV) approach is adopted by using in-sample and out-of-sample IVs and using the restricted-use Parent and Family Involvement (PFI) survey from National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for 2007. 

The first IV is based on the idea of network externality. I consider the proportion of homeschoolers in each zip code as a determinant of homeschooling for a parent in that zip code. Households would find homeschooling very appealing and more convenient if they observe that their neighbors have chosen home education (Isenberg, 2003). Number of charter schools per thousand population in a zip code serves as the second IV. Huerta et al. (2006) discuss that around 10 percent of charter schools enrolment is in nonclassroom-based charter schools especially in California and Pennsylvania, including home school charters. Therefore, more charter schools in a neighborhood would increase the likelihood of homeschooling while there is no reason to assume that it correlates with child overweight. To ensure that number of charter schools is exogenous to child overweight, I analyze the variation in the prevalence of child overweight among the states with and without charter schools in 2007. The results show that the difference in prevalence of child overweight between the two groups is not statistically significant, suggesting that the number of charter school is likely exogenous to child overweight and therefore a valid IV.

I find that homeschooled children are less likely to be overweight compared with their counterparts who go to public or private school. The effect is most pronounced for children between 8 to 12 years old as well as those with educated mothers. Consistent with the existing literature, the results show that homeschooling through increased time spent by mothers can reduce the risk of child overweight. By spending more time with her child and providing him with healthier foods and other positive physical health inputs, a mother can partially make up for the benefits that come with higher income.

The study is far from concluding whether homeschooling is a socially desirable means of schooling kids.  It does highlight one important aspect of home schooling, however, which is the physical health benefit of increased contact between mother and child at early ages. Having said that homeschooling might reduce children's social skills, a point which is out of the scope of this paper.

References:

1- Huerta L., Gonzalez M.F., d’Entremont C, (2006). “Cyber and Home School Charter Schools: Adopting Policy to New Forms of Public Schooling”, Peabody Journal of Education, 81, no. 1.

2- Isenberg E. (2003). “Home schooling: School choice and women's time use”, (Occasional Paper No.6).  New York:  National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.