Mothers’ Perceived HIV Status and Children’s Schooling in Rural Mozambique: The Role of Self-Rated Health

Luciana Luz, Arizona State University

Women’s perceived HIV status has been shown to affect parental investments in children’s outcomes, but little research has addressed how this relationship interacts with changes in women’s perceived health condition. Using data from a longitudinal survey conducted in Mozambique in 2009 and 2011, we examine the effect of maternal perceived health condition on the association between perceived HIV status and children’s schooling outcomes. Preliminary results suggest that the effect of HIV status on school enrollment and attendance is restricted to children whose mothers think they might be HIV positive and perceive their health to be consistently poor or deteriorating. We argue that women who become suspicious of their HIV status and feel their health worsening with time tend to revise their investments in schooling because of lower perceived returns of education in the long term, and increased need for labor substitution in the household in the short term.