Title not available in English

Abstract

Although relationship between and child mortality and the educational level of the child´s father and, especially, mother has been established repeatedly, in census analyses as well as in the association can be accounted for in terms of the importance of education within the general system of social stratification. Its impact, however, tends to be stronger and more consistent that of more ortodox indicators of living conditions, like the per capita family income, suggesting the existence of other, non-economic - intermediate variables. This article seeks to identify areas of possible relevance to the study of the causality involved in this process, through a review of the existing literature, supplemented with analyses based on the Demographic Census of 1970 and the National Investigation on Hu¬man Reproduction (PNRH).