文章基本信息

标题：Parents’ Education, Mothers’ Vocabulary, and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: Longitudinal Evidence From Ecuador
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作者：Norbert Schady
期刊名称：American journal of public health
印刷版ISSN：0090-0036
出版年度：2011
卷号：101
期号：12
页码：2299-2307
DOI：10.2105/AJPH.2011.300253
语种：English
出版社：American Public Health Association
摘要：Objectives. I estimated the association between parents’ education, mothers’ vocabulary, and early child cognitive development in a sample of poor children in rural Ecuador. Methods. I used regression analysis to estimate the association between parents’ education, mothers’ vocabulary, and the vocabulary, memory, and visual integration skills of children at early ages, controlling for possible confounders. The study is based on a longitudinal cohort of children in rural Ecuador (n = 2118). Results. The schooling and vocabulary levels of mothers were strong predictors of the cognitive development of young children. Household wealth and child's height, weight, and hemoglobin levels explained only a modest fraction of the observed associations. The vocabulary levels of mothers and children were more strongly correlated among older children in the sample, suggesting that the effects of a richer maternal vocabulary are cumulative. Conclusions. Differences in children's cognitive outcomes start very early, which has important implications for the intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality. Programs that seek to increase early stimulation for disadvantaged children, perhaps through parenting programs or high-quality center-based care, hold promise. A recent review estimates that in developing countries, more than 200 million children younger than 5 years fail to reach their potential in cognitive development because of poverty, inadequate nutrition, and insufficient stimulation.¹ Children with higher levels of cognitive development at young ages are more likely to be successful throughout their lives in a number of dimensions. Long-term panels that have followed children into adulthood show that cognitive tests taken at ages 5 and 10 years explain 27% to 35% of the variation in the logarithm of wages at age 30 years in the 1970 British Cohort Study, and tests taken at ages 7 and 11 years predict 28% to 37% of the variation in the logarithm of wages at ages 33 and 42 years in the United States National Child Development Study.² Development in early childhood is malleable. In the United States, experimental estimates of the impact of high-quality, intensive preschool interventions such as the Perry Preschool Program and the Abecedarian Program suggest large impacts on school attainment, higher wages, and lower rates of criminal behavior in adulthood, most robustly among girls.^{3 , 4} In developing countries, long-term longitudinal studies have shown sustained benefits from better nutrition in early childhood in Guatemala^{5 – 8} and from stimulation and parenting interventions in Jamaica.^{9 – 11} A variety of other interventions have also shown promise in some settings.¹² I used longitudinal data from rural Ecuador to analyze the relationship between the schooling level of parents, the vocabulary of mothers, and cognitive development in young children. As is well-known, there are substantial disparities in cognitive development associated with family background in many settings.^{1 , 13 , 14} I investigated when these disparities set in and how they evolve as children age.