Is family social exclusion associated with child psychomotor and social development delay in southeastern Brazil?

Abstract

The early years of life are a crucial period for shaping child development. Children from socially excluded families may have less opportunity to attain their full development. The objective was to identify if family social exclusion is associated with child psychomotor and social development delay in Southeastern Brazil. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from a sample of 348 children under three years. We measured psychomotor and social development delays. An index was used to evaluate social exclusion. The prevalence of child psychomotor and social developmental delay was 27.6% and 17.2%, respectively. Children in the most social excluded group were more likely to have delayed psychomotor development (OR = 3.4; 95% CI = 1.14; 10.55) and social developmental delay (OR = 3.9; 95% CI = 1.05; 9.02) than children in the least social excluded group. The results confirm the association between family social exclusion and child development delay.