BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.8, No.1, 2021 1074 

 

 

 

 

The Impact of Boarding on the Children’s Health in 

Rural China 

By Jiang, N., & Xu, J. 
Correspondence to: Xu, J., College of Economics and Management, Zhejiang 

A&F University, China. Email: xu_jingqin@163.com 

HIS article is based on the data from the China Health and Nutrition 

Survey in the year 2009, 2011, and 2015, which covers a total of 12 

provinces in the east-central-west regions of China, using the Propensity 

Score Matching Method (PSM), and adopted the Rosenbaum boundary esti-

mation and instrumental variable methods for robustness testing to confirm 

the credibility of the research conclusions. The research results are as follows: 

 Indicators and method introduction: Using the anthropometric 

parameters (height, weight, etc.) to measure children’s health sta-

tus, and use HAZ score (height for age Z-score) to evaluate chil-

dren’s long-term nutritional health status, BAZ score (BMI for 

age Z-score) to reflect children’s recent or short-term nutritional 

health status. From the descriptive statistics of the data, it is 

known that there are certain characteristics differences between 

boarding students and non-boarding students. The propensity 

score matching method (PSM) needs to be used to control the 

differences in characteristics besides children’s health status, and 

it is necessary to further adopt the robustness test of Rosenbaum 

boundary estimation and instrumental variable method to con-

firm the reliability of the research conclusions. 

 Analysis of the results: boarding at school has a certain negative 

impact on children’s health, and rural children from central west 

regions, especially the western areas were strongly affected, 

while the situation of that in the eastern region is not significant; 

The negative impact of school boarding on the health of rural 

boarding students mainly occurs at the elementary school level. 

 Countermeasures and Suggestions: First, it is necessary to con-

tribute to the reinforcement of financial support for rural board-

ing schools in the central west regions, especially in the western 

regions. Meanwhile, the special fund for the nutrition improve-

ment plan for boarding schools requires strict management. Se-

cond, great importance should be attached to children’s health 

T 



 

Vol.8, No.1, 2021 1075 

problems caused by low-age boarding. It is strongly recommend-

ed to provide nutrition and health courses and strengthening 

home-school interaction to help low-age boarding children de-

velop healthy eating habits; Third, refine the rural boarding 

schools’ management, carry out some nutrition knowledge train-

ing, concentrate on meal collocation, ensure the diversified food 

and balanced nutrition structure, and improve the food taste, so 

as to provide a good learning and living condition for rural 

boarding children. 

 

Source: Education & Economy, 2020; 36(4):21-29.