Explaining gaps by parental education in children’s early language and social outcomes at age 3–4 years: evidence from harmonised data from three countries

Abstract

Child outcomes vary by family’s socioeconomic status (SES). Research on explanatory factors underlying early SES-related disparities has mainly focused on specific child outcomes (e.g., language skills) and selected influencing factors in single countries often with a focus on individual differences but not explicitly on early SES-related gaps. This study uses harmonised data from longitudinal large-scale studies conducted in the United Kingdom, United States, and Germany to examine parental education-related gaps in early child language and social skills. Twelve theoretically proposed family-, child-, and childcare-related factors were systematically evaluated as explanatory factors. In all countries, parental education-related gaps were particularly pronounced for early child language compared to social skills. In the decomposition analyses, the home learning environment was the only measure that significantly explained gaps in all child outcomes across all countries. Early centre-based care attendance, family income, and maternal age at childbirth contributed to gaps in child outcomes with the specific pattern of results varying across outcomes and countries. Maternal depressive feelings significantly contributed only to explaining gaps in children’s social skills. Thus, while some mechanisms found to underpin early parental education-related gaps can be generalized from single-country, single-domain studies, others are outcome- and context-specific.

Key developmental milestones helped to identify children with special educational needs and disabilities at an early stage

“…A partial explanation for this may be direct or indirect genetic influences of learning disabilities or limited intellectual functioning. Another may be a less stimulating home learning environment for acquiring a certain level of speech, language and new skills 27 . Migration background only had a significant effect on the probability of attending a school for children with severe communication problems.…”

“…Another may be a less stimulating home learning environment for acquiring a certain level of speech, language and new skills. 27 Migration background only had a significant effect on the probability of attending a school for children with severe communication problems. Further research is needed to investigate whether programmes tailored to the needs of preschool and school-aged migrant children can reduce, or even eliminate, their need for SEND support.…”

“…Background characteristics and developmental milestones were included in the model. The pass rates for the DDI milestones were investigated at the following months and ranges: 12 (10-14), 15 (13)(14)(15)(16)(17), 18 (16)(17)(18)(19)(20), 24 (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27), 36 (33-39) and 45 (42-47). Boxplots were constructed to show the difference in pass rates for developmental milestones between the four SEND groups and the Mainstream Group for the imputed data.…”

The economic costs of childhood socio-economic disadvantage in European OECD countries

“…Following Holzer et al (2008[27]), we use USD (2006) 200 000 as our base annualised value of a healthy life year. 13 We adjust for (CPI) inflation, which gives us an annual value of USD (2018) 249 000, and then adjust for differences in income levels between countries using the international transfer method outlined by Viscusi and Masterman (2017 [85]). 14 Converting to Euros gives final annualised values per lost quality-adjusted life year that range from EUR (2018) 77 310 in Bulgaria to EUR (2018) 390 767 in Luxembourg.…”

“…In part for this reason, we follow Holzer et al (2008[27]) and many other studies valuing QALYs (Cutler and Richardson, 1998[126]; García et al, 2020 [127]; Finkelstein, Hendren and Luttmer, 2019 [84]) in using the value of a statistical life year to monetise lost quality-adjusted life years. 14 Viscusi and Masterman's (2017 [85]) method's allows US-based VSLs to be transferred to other countries. They calculate national equivalents of US-based VSLs using:…”