Publications

Browse FSI scholarship on geopolitics, global health, energy, cybersecurity and more.

Featured Publications

A blue and yelloe globe centered on South America.

Is Russia Losing in Ukraine but Winning in the Global South?

Kathryn Stoner examines why the Global South has such a different perspective from the Global North on Russia’s war in Ukraine, and what that might mean for the international order.

GLOBAL SOUTH

Cover of the book "Upstart" by Oriana Skylar Mastro (3d mockup)

Upstart: How China Became a Great Power

A new book by Oriana Skylar Mastro offers a novel framework to explain China's 30-year journey to great power status through strategic emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship.

Upstart

Regulating Under Uncertainty: Governance Options for Generative AI

Florence G'Sell of lays out all the options that are “on the table” for regulating artificial intelligence and increasing communication, cooperation, and transparency among the technology's many stakeholders.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

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Journal Articles

Maternal Empowerment, Feeding Knowledge, and Infant Nutrition: Evidence from Rural China

Journal of Global Health, 2024

Background: Maternal empowerment - the capacity to make decisions within households - is linked to better child feeding and nutritional outcomes, but few studies have considered the mediating role of caregiver knowledge. Further, existing literature centres primarily on the husband-wife dyad while overlooking grandmothers as important childcare decision-makers.

Methods: We collected primary data through household surveys in 2019 and 2021 from 1190 households with infants zero to six months living in rural western China. We identified the primary and secondary caregivers for each infant and assessed their feeding knowledge and practices, as well as infant nutritional status. We constructed a maternal empowerment index using a seven-item decision-making questionnaire and examined the relationship between maternal empowerment in childcare and household decisions, caregivers' feeding knowledge, and infant feeding practices and nutritional outcomes.

Results: Mothers had significantly higher levels of feeding knowledge than secondary caregivers (most were grandmothers, 72.7%), with average knowledge scores of 5.4 vs. 4.1, respectively, out of 9. Mothers and secondary caregivers with higher levels of feeding knowledge had significantly higher exclusive breastfeeding rates by 13-15 percentage points (P < 0.01) and 11-13 percentage points (P < 0.01), respectively. The knowledge of secondary caregivers was even more strongly associated with not feeding formula (15 percentage points, P < 0.01). Mothers empowered to make childcare decisions were more likely to exclusively breastfeed (12-13 percentage points, P < 0.01), less likely to formula feed (9-10 percentage points, P < 0.05), and more likely to have children with higher Z-scores for length-for-age (0.32-0.33, P < 0.01) and weight-for-age (0.24-0.25, P < 0.05). Effects remained after controlling for maternal feeding knowledge.

Conclusions: While mothers' and grandmothers' feeding knowledge was both important for optimal infant feeding, grandmothers' knowledge was particularly critical for practicing exclusive breastfeeding. Given the disparity in feeding knowledge between the two caregivers, our study further shows that mothers empowered in childcare decision-making were more likely to exclusively breastfeed their infants. This implies that some mothers with adequate knowledge may not practice optimal feeding because of lower decision-making power. Overall, our study highlights the role of secondary caregivers (grandmothers) in infant care and suggests that future child nutritional interventions may benefit from involving secondary caregivers (grandmothers).

In-Hospital Formula Feeding Hindered Exclusive Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy as a Mediating Factor

Nutrients, 2023

Journal Articles

Effect of the mHealth-Supported Healthy Future Programme Delivered by Community Health Workers on Maternal and Child Health in Rural China: Study Protocol for a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial

BMJ Open, 2023

Introduction Millions of young rural children in China still suffer from poor health and malnutrition, partly due to a lack of knowledge about optimal perinatal and child care among rural mothers and caregivers. Meanwhile, there is an urgent need to improve maternal mental health in rural communities. Comprehensive home visiting programmes delivered by community health workers (CHWs) can bridge the caregiver knowledge gap and improve child health and maternal well-being in low-resource settings, but the effectiveness of this approach is unknown in rural China. Additionally, grandmothers play important roles in child care and family decision-making in rural China, suggesting the importance of engaging multiple caregivers in interventions. The Healthy Future programme seeks to improve child health and maternal well-being by developing a staged-based curriculum that CHWs deliver to mothers and caregivers of young children through home visits with the assistance of a tablet-based mHealth system. This protocol describes the design and evaluation plan for this programme.

Methods and analysis We designed a cluster-randomised controlled trial among 119 rural townships in four nationally designated poverty counties in Southwestern China. We will compare the outcomes between three arms: one standard arm with only primary caregivers participating in the intervention, one encouragement arm engaging primary and secondary caregivers and one control arm with no intervention. Families with pregnant women or infants under 6 months of age are invited to enrol in the 12-month study. Primary outcomes include children’s haemoglobin levels, exclusive breastfeeding rates and dietary diversity in complementary feeding. Secondary outcomes include a combination of health, behavioural and intermediate outcomes.

Commentary

The Grand Divergence in Global Child Health: Confronting Data Requirements in Areas of Conflict and Chronic Political Instability

Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, 2016