Cognitive skill performance among young children living in poverty: Risk, change, and the promotive effects of Early Head Start

doi:10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.04.001

Early Childhood Research Quarterly

Volume 24, Issue 3, 3rd Quarter 2009, Pages 289-305

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2009.04.001 Get rights and content

Abstract

The purposes of the present study were to examine associations between risk factors and the cognitive performance from one to three years of age of children living in poverty, and to investigate the protective and/or promotive effects of EHS on children's cognitive skill performance. Analyses were conducted using data from the Early Head Start (EHS) Research and Evaluation Project, a prospective study of 3001 children and families living in poverty. There were four main findings. First, children's cognitive skill scores decreased significantly from one to three years of age in comparison to national norms. Second, children whose families were on government assistance, children whose mothers had less than a high school education, children who received lower levels of cognitive and language stimulation at home, and children who had higher levels of negative emotionality evidenced more rapid rates of decline. Third, children in families who received government assistance, children whose parents were unemployed, and children whose mothers had less than a high school education had lower cognitive skill scores at three years of age. Fourth, children who were enrolled in Early Head Start (EHS) had higher cognitive skill scores at three years of age than their peers who were not in EHS. Implications for policy and early education are discussed.

Section snippets

Ecological systems model and interventions

To better understand the varying factors that influence the cognitive skills of children living in poverty, we use an ecological systems model (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 1998, Cicchetti and Lynch, 1993, Ford and Lerner, 1992, Huston et al., 1997, Mashburn and Pianta, 2006, Sameroff, 1995). According to ecological systems models, children develop over time within interrelated systems that exist at levels proximal and distal to the child (Bronfenbrenner, 1977, Pianta and Walsh, 1996). Risk and

Risks and cognitive skills

Child temperament, the biological basis for behavior, is located in the ontogenic system. A temperament marked by high levels of negative emotionality may serve as a risk factor for lower-level cognitive skill performance. Children with higher levels of negative emotionality tend to perform lower on tests of cognitive skill than their more regulated peers (Buckner, Mezzacappa, & Beardslee, 2003). Children in poverty may be more likely to develop high levels of negative emotionality than their

Intervention programs: protective factors, promotive factors, and cognitive skills

Intervention programs for children and families in poverty, which are located at the exosystem, are designed to provide children and families with protective and promotive factors. The focus of these programs is to give children and families coordinated resources to ameliorate the negative effects of poverty, and to promote positive development. Special consideration must be given to the examination of interventions within ecological systems models (Hooper et al., 1998). In particular, Sameroff

Present study

The majority of previous research on poverty and children's development has not been conducted to investigate the cognitive skills of young children over time and the effects of multiple child, family, and environmental factors on children's cognitive skill development. This paucity of research is primarily due to a lack of resources required for large-scale longitudinal studies or a lack of knowledge regarding statistical methods for investigating relationships between risk and protective

Sample

The EHS Research and Evaluation Project is a prospective study of 3001 children and their families from birth through preschool. At the time the program was initiated, ACYF selected 17 EHS programs located in all regions of the United States, to participate in a rigorous and large-scale evaluation. This purposeful selection resulted in a research sample of 3001 families that reflects the characteristics of all EHS programs funded in 1995 and 1996. The 3001 families were randomly assigned to

Descriptive statistics

Means and standard deviations for continuous variables are presented in Table 1, in addition to percentages for each of the dichotomous predictor variables. Children demonstrated average levels of negative emotionality, mothers and children evidenced moderate levels of dyadic mutuality and moderate amounts of language and cognitive stimulation were afforded children at home. Extensive variation was evident, however, such that some children evidenced high levels of negative emotionality, and

Discussion

To understand more fully children's cognitive skill development within the context of family poverty, we examined cognitive skills in infancy and very early childhood using ecological systems models of development. Using a prospective, longitudinal approach, we extended the current work on cognitive skill development in the face of risk and protective/promotive factors both proximal and distal to the child, through examination of data from the EHS Research and Evaluation Project.

Acknowledgements

The findings reported here are based on research conducted as part of the National Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under Contract 105-95-1936 to Mathematica Policy Research, Princeton, NJ, and Columbia University's National Center for Children and Families, Teachers College, in conjunction with the Early Head Start Research Consortium. The consortium consists of

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Cognitive skill performance among young children living in poverty: Risk, change, and the promotive effects of Early Head Start

Abstract

Section snippets

Ecological systems model and interventions

Risks and cognitive skills

Intervention programs: protective factors, promotive factors, and cognitive skills

Present study

Sample

Descriptive statistics

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

Developmental Review

The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Early child care and early child development: Major findings of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care

European Journal of Developmental Psychology

The effects of day care: A critical review

Child Development

Parenting

Socioeconomic status and child development

Annual Reviews Psychology

Toward an experimental ecology of human development

American Psychologist

Contexts of child rearing: Problems and prospects

American Psychologist

Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives

Developmental Psychology

Recent advances in research on the ecology of human development

Ecological models of human development

The ecology of developmental process

The effects of poverty on children

The Future of Children: Children and Poverty

Studying lives through time: Secondary data analyses in developmental psychology

Developmental Psychology

Characteristics of resilient youths living in poverty: The role of self-regulatory processes

Development and Psychology

Estimating individual developmental functions: Methods and their assumptions

Child Development

Early intervention and mediating processes in cognitive performance of children of low-income African American families

Child Development

Cumulative risk and early cognitive development: A comparison of statistical risk models

Developmental Psychology

Temperament: Early developing personality traits

Home observation for measurement of the environment

The development of cognitive and academic abilities: Growth curves from an early childhood educational experiment

Developmental Psychology

Toward an ecological/transactional model of community violence and child maltreatment: Consequences for children's development

Interpersonal & Biological Processes

Emotional security as a regulatory proves in normal development and the development of psychopathology

Development and Psychopathology

Parenting of divorced mothers as a link between social status and boys’ academic outcomes: Unpacking the effects of socioeconomic status

Child Development

Why can’t we close the achievement gap?

Emotional self-regulation in preschoolers: The interplay of child approach, reactivity, parenting, and control capacities

Developmental Psychology

Prediction of Bayley and Stanford-Binet scores with a group of very low birth weight children.

Child: Care, Health and Development

Family poverty, welfare reform, and child development

Child Development

Developmental systems theory: An integrative approach

Mother-toddler problem solving: Antecedents in attachment, home behavior and temperament

Child Development

The human ecology of early risk

Children in poverty: Resilience despite risk

Psychiatry

The effects of anti-poverty programs on children's cumulative level of poverty-related risk

Developmental Psychology

Evaluating interventions with differential attrition: The importance of non-response mechanisms and use of follow-up data

Journal of Applied Psychology

Academic growth curve trajectories from 1st grade to 12th grade: Effects of multiple social risk factors and preschool child factors

Developmental Psychology

Early intervention for low-income children and families

Explaining social class differences in growth of reading skills from beginning kindergarten through fourth-grade: The role of phonological awareness, rate of access, and print knowledge

Reading and Writing

A broader view of what education policy should be

Annotation: What can be done about missing data? Approaches to imputation

American Journal of Public Health

Academic growth curve trajectories from 1^st grade to 12^th grade: Effects of multiple social risk factors and preschool child factors