Neighbourhood socioeconomic status indices and early childhood development

Abstract

The developmental health of young children is highly influenced by the socioeconomic conditions in which they are raised. How to accurately measure these conditions is a point of debate in the current literature on child development, health, and social determinants. We have evaluated four existing indices of socioeconomic status (SES) to determine the most relevant for the analysis of early childhood development (ECD) in Canada. Following a literature review of published SES indices which used 2006 Canadian Census data, four indices were chosen based on their relevance to ECD and the number of citations in subsequent articles. These were: the Canadian Deprivation Index, the Socioeconomic Factor Index, the Canadian Marginalization Index and an index created by the Early Childhood Mapping Project in Alberta, Canada. The indices were replicated using SES data for 2038 customized geographic neighbourhoods encompassing 99.9% of the Canadian population, and the relationship of the indices to ECD was investigated by linking to aggregated data from the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a teacher-completed questionnaire used to assess kindergarten children's physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development, and communication skills. The derived SES indices were compared based on four criteria: the input variables used, the index structure, the interpretability of the index and the variance they explained (R2) in the different EDI outcome measures. In terms of variance explained, material components of the SES indices (e.g., income, education) consistently showed the strongest association with children's language and cognitive development. The patterns of association for the non-material SES components and the other developmental domains of the EDI were more complex. We discuss the findings in regard to current developments in the field, and the need for refining empirical and theoretical approaches to examine associations between different facets of SES contextual factors and different aspects of ECD outcomes.

Association of childhood socioeconomic status with edentulism among Chinese in mid-late adulthood

“…The results of this study are consistent with those from previous life-course epidemiological studies on other adulthood diseases [46,47]. Many studies focused on the economic [48] or environmental [49], factors of the neighborhood this study highlighted the social perception, willingness of neighbors to help with close-knit relationships independent of adulthood SES remained significantly associated with edentulism in mid-to late-age Chinese individuals. Poor family SES negatively correlated with high quality and affordability of oral health services, and thus those children had restricted access to oral health services.…”

Social pathways to health: On the mediating role of the social network in the relation between socio-economic position and health

“…SEP is the social and economic standing of a person, and often involves measures of education, income and occupational status, or a combination of the three. Most authors agree that using different indicators of SEP, rather than only education or income, better captures the full contribution of SEP to health ( Galobardes et al, 2007 , Webb et al, 2017 ).…”

Early childhood development in Iran and its provinces: Inequality versus average

“…The study can provide policymakers with a chance to extend their knowledge on health status of children in a society beyond the central tendency measures and offer them a starting point to follow the national trend in fairness of ECD in the Iranian society. It is important since the contribution of development in early life to the future population health, social capital and society wellbeing has been well established in literature …”