Parents give boys preferential treatment when there is a chronic food shortage

Parents give boys preferential treatment when there is a chronic food shortage
In situations of chronic food shortage, parents are inclined to give boys a preferential treatment, despite the fact that the health of their daughters suffers more from food insecurity. This is shown by research from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Ethiopia, appearing in the journal Pediatrics.

It is self-evident that food shortages are not healthy, but up to now nobody hat looked if all children in a family suffer equally, or if there are gender differences. In most studies into the effects of food insecurity, parents were questioned, not their children. Scientists of Jimma University (Ethiopia), assisted by American and Flemish scientists, during five years followed two thousand teenagers in as many households, in urban as well as rural communities