The relationship between multidimensional economic well‐being and children’s mental health, physical health, and executive function development in South Africa

Abstract

Conceptualizing both economic well‐being (EWB) and children's development as multidimensional constructs, the present study examines their association using bioecological developmental theory and structural equation modeling with Zulu children (ages 7–10) in KwaZulu‐Natal, a highly impoverished region of South Africa (N = 1,958). Relative EWB within impoverished communities consists of three dimensions: material assets (durable goods and living environment), fiscal appraisal (subjective experiences of access to/allocation of resources), and fiscal capacity (monetary inflow/outflow). Children's development also is measured across multiple dimensions: physical health, mental health, and executive functioning. In addition to an overall association between EWB and children's development across outcomes, the sub‐dimensions of EWB are differentially related to aspects of children's development. The dimension of material assets exhibits the greatest association with child outcomes, while fiscal capacity exhibits the least. Implications of these findings are discussed, including the use of multidimensional approaches to measuring EWB to understand, more clearly, its relationship to multiple dimensions of children's development. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcawZ6oOt-Q

Childhood Economic Well-Being in South Africa: Construction of a Theoretically-Grounded Empirically-Derived Multidimensional Measure

“…The present sample is from the first wave of a short-term longitudinal study, "Sibhekelela izingane zethu (SIZE)" or "We look out for our children." For additional information see Turbeville et al (2018b). The sample consists of 1961 households, each with a focal child age ranging from 7 to 11 years.…”

“…KZN has approximately 11.07 million residents (Statistics South Africa 2016, b), and the Msunduzi municipality of KZN is both demographically (household income, urbancity, type of residents) and geographically representative of the diversity of South Africa as a whole, making it an ideal site (Turbeville et al 2018b). However, a distinct characteristic of KZN is that approximately 95% of the population is Zulu, who were among the indigenous South African groups that were extremely oppressed in the Apartheid system.…”

World Child Well-Being Index: A Multidimensional Perspective

“…As Moore et al (2014) note, when it comes to wellbeing, "few would propose that any single indicator could adequately capture what is an inherently multidimensional concept". Therefore, it would be reasonable to adopt a multidimensional perspective (Ben-Arieh & Frønes, 2007;Turbeville et al, 2019;Maya Matallana et al, 2020). Furthermore, social awareness is created as disaggregated information becomes available.…”

Introduction to special issue on global child development studies

“…Almost all studies included in this special issue cast light on specific risk and protective factors including household level multidimensional economic well‐being (Turbeville, Aber, Weinberg, Richter, & Heerden, ), parenting behaviors and family experiences (Dulay et al, ; Obradović et al, ; Turesky et al, ), school climate (Starkey, Aber, & Crossman, ), violence, and neighborhood danger (Deater‐Deckard et al, ; Pellizzoni, Apuzzo, De Vita, Agostini, & Passolunghi, ), and physical activity (Cook et al, ). Many of these factors undermine or promote child development in similar ways in low‐, middle‐, and high‐income countries.…”

“…for example, test the adaptation of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning in the Gambia and cast light on developmental patterns in children aged 5-24 months.They identify a pattern of older children receiving lower scores and suggest that this may reveal a developmental period during which infants at risk for cognitive delay begin to exhibit early behavioral manifestations of exposure to adversity (e.g., poverty and malnu-trition). Willoughby et al (2019) demonstrate the utility of computerized, performance-based executive functions measures in a large-scale study of preschool children in Kenya.Almost all studies included in this special issue cast light on specific risk and protective factors including household level multidimensional economic well-being(Turbeville, Aber, Weinberg, Richter, & Heerden, 2019), parenting behaviors and family experiences(Dulay et al, 2019;Obradović et al, 2019;Turesky et al, 2019), school climate(Starkey, Aber, & Crossman, 2019), violence,and neighborhood danger (Deater-Deckard et al, 2019; Pellizzoni, Apuzzo, De Vita, Agostini, & Passolunghi, 2019), and physical activ-ity…”