Family play, reading, and other stimulation and early childhood development in five low‐and‐middle‐income countries

Abstract

This paper used longitudinal data from five studies conducted in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes (N = 4904; Mage = 51.5; 49% girls). Results from random‐effects and more conservative child‐fixed effects models indicate that across these studies, family stimulation, measured by caregivers’ engagement in nine activities (e.g., reading, playing, singing), predicted increments in children's early numeracy, literacy, social‐emotional, motor, and executive function skills (standardized associations ranged from 0.05 to 0.11 SD). Study‐specific models showed variability in the estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies. These findings indicate the need for additional research on culturally specific ways in which caregivers may support early development and highlight the importance of promoting family stimulation to catalyze positive developmental trajectories in global contexts.Research Highlights Research on the links between family stimulation and early childhood development in low‐and‐middle‐income countries (LMICs) is limited. We used longitudinal data from studies conducted in five LMICs to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes. Results suggest that family stimulation predicted increments in children's numeracy, literacy, social‐emotional, motor, and executive function skills. We found variability in the observed estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies, suggesting the need for additional research in LMICs.

Reliability and validity of the responsive care tool for children 0–3 years old in a rural, South Asian setting

“…(p. 490) There is evidence that responsive caregiving, as defined here, is associated with ECD in the high-, middle-, and low-income settings (Aboud & Akhter, 2011;Isabella, 1993;Landry et al, 2006;Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2001). Additional works show that caregiver-initiated behaviors, which are stimulating interactions between a caregiver and a child that are not responsive but potentially beneficial, such as labeling or directing child behavior in a different way, are also positively associated with ECD (Cuartas et al, 2023;Jeong et al, 2016). Finally, research indicates that negative behaviors, defined as hurtful or unnecessarily restrictive caregiver behaviors that ignore the meaning of the child's signal, are negatively associated with ECD (Cuartas et al, 2021;Gershoff et al, 2018).…”

“…Although caregiver-initiated behaviors are not responsive, as they are not responding to a child's cue, they are not inherently negative. For example, some behaviors that promote early learning, such as prompting a child to engage in an activity, would not be considered responsive, but have been shown in past studies to support ECD (Cuartas et al, 2023;Jeong et al, 2016). However, in large quantities, caregiver-initiated play and talk may provide excessive or unwanted stimulation, and lead the child to de-attend; in other situations, it may be experienced as over-controlling or intrusive, which is one source of avoidant attachment (Isabella & Belsky, 1991).…”

Estimating the association between spanking and early childhood development using between- and within-child analyses.

“…The data also included demographic and contextual variables reported by children’s main caregivers, which I used as covariates in the analyses. In particular, there was information on children’s age in months and sex, caregivers’ age and education (none, primary, secondary, higher, or nonformal), and household wealth as measured by the first component of polychoric principal component analysis of basic dwelling characteristics (e.g., access to electricity) and household assets (e.g., television), as computed in Cuartas et al (2023). Furthermore, the data included information on children’s exposure to other harsh discipline at home, in particular whether caregivers yelled at the child (yes vs. no), a summed index of the availability of books in the home, comprising five dichotomous yes/no indicators (e.g., storybooks, coloring books; possible range = 0–5, α = .75), a summed index of playthings/toys in the home, comprising nine yes/no dichotomous indicators (e.g., toys from a shop, homemade toys; possible range = 0–9, α = .64), and an index of caregivers’ stimulation practices, measured as a sum index of mothers’, fathers’, and other adult caregivers’ engagement in nine play/learning activities with the child (yes vs. no), including reading, telling stories, singing songs, going outside, playing, naming objects, teaching new things, teaching letters, and playing counting games (α = .79).…”

The developmental consequences of early exposure to climate change‐related risks

“…Structural characteristics and acute shocks within community contexts affect caregiving behaviors and interactions with children related to violence and engagement in early learning opportunities (Cuartas et al., 2018; Cuellar et al., 2015). These caregiving behaviors and interactions, often conceptualized as the proximal processes that drive development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007), significantly predict foundational skills globally (Cuartas et al., 2023; Heilmann et al., 2021; Jeong et al., 2017).…”