New Report: Disparities in Early Learning and Development

Posted by on July 20, 2009

Achievement gap begins in infancy: study

A new Child Trends study finds disparities between poor, at-risk children and more advantaged children as early as 9 months of age – extending prior research that primarily focuses on disparities at kindergarten entry and beyond.

The study, Disparities in Early Learning and Development: Lessons from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort, identifies low income and low maternal education as the factors most strongly associated with poorer cognitive, social-emotional, and health outcomes among very young children.  It also finds that the more risk factors a child has, the more profound the disparities.

The study found that, compared to their peers from higher-income families, infants and toddlers from low-income families score lower on cognitive assessments, are less likely to be in excellent or very good health, and are less likely to receive positive behavior ratings at both 9 and 24 months.  It also found that toddlers from lower-income families are less likely to have a secure attachment to their primary caregiver compared to toddlers from higher-income families.  Small effects were found for all outcomes at 9 months; these effects were larger by 24 months.

Compared to infants whose mothers have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, infants and toddlers whose mothers have less than a high school degree score lower on both cognitive and behavioral measures and they are also less likely to be in excellent or very good health. Disparities are typically small at 9 months, but become more pronounced at 24 months, according to the study.

In addition, toddlers whose mothers have a Bachelor’s degree or higher are more likely to have a secure attachment to their primary caregiver compared to toddlers whose mothers have less education.

The study, based on a nationally representative sample of children born in the U.S. in 2001, also includes implications for policy and practice.

Click here to download the full report

http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2009_07_10_FR_DisparitiesEL.pdf

and here for the executive summary.

http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2009_07_10_ES_DisparitiesEL.pdf