Sex Differentials in Toilet Training: A Comparative Study of France and of the UK

Alex Sheridan , Ined
Olivia Samuel, CRESPPA

Health and mortality gaps between men and women are constructed throughout life. We investigate whether sex differentials in hygiene behaviors take root in early childhood, as they can favorably or adversely impact health. In this paper, we look at a day-to-day practice related to the child’s hygiene in early childhood: toilet training before age five. We use data from the Etude Longitudinale depuis l’Enfance (Elfe) for France, and from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) for the United Kingdom to conduct a comparative study of these two countries. With samples of around 18,000 children at the beginning of both studies, we ask whether boys and girls achieve toilet training at different ages, and whether these sex differences are related to children’s socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, to family composition or to institutional settings. We use toilet training variables available in three waves of Elfe—when the child is one, two and three and a half—and in two waves of MCS—when the child is three and five. This allows us to study toilet training trajectories longitudinally, and to exploit age variations in interaction with different ages at the start of school to investigate the effect of institutional incentives on children’s hygiene. At this early stage, we mainly have expected results: using descriptive statistics and regressions, we expect to find that girls achieve toilet training earlier than boys, with bigger differentials in the UK at a given age, as well as in less advantaged families.

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 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History