Maternal undernutrition and adolescent childbearing are prevalent in low- and middle-income countries and have harmful consequences for children. However, less is known on whether these implications persist throughout the offspring’s life course. Moreover, although adult nutritional status has been suggested to largely reflect conditions during the period from conception to 2 years old (“the first 1,000 days”), others have argued that adolescence is an equally important period for nutrition.

Although there is a vast number of empirical studies documenting a strong positive link between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and child outcomes, we do not know whether these associations remain robust when controlling for other parental background dimensions. In this working paper, Andreas Georgiadis investigates the association of child human capital indicators with a wide range of parental background dimensions across four low- and middle-income countries (Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam) and at different stages of childhood and adolescence using data from Young Lives.