IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i16p2915-d257609.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Place Matter? An International Comparison of Early Childhood Development Outcomes between the Metropolitan Areas of Melbourne, Australia and Montreal, Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Catherine Dea

    (Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3N 1X9, Canada
    Direction Régionale de Santé Publique, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et Services Sociaux du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC H2L 1M3, Canada)

  • Lise Gauvin

    (Department of Social & Preventive Medicine, École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC H3N 1X9, Canada
    Health Innovation and Evaluation Hub, Centre de recherche du CHUM, Montréal, QC H2X 0A9, Canada)

  • Michel Fournier

    (Direction Régionale de Santé Publique, Centre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et Services Sociaux du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, QC H2L 1M3, Canada)

  • Sharon Goldfeld

    (Centre for Community Child Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, & Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne VIC 3052, Australia)

Abstract

There is strong consensus about the importance of early childhood development (ECD) for improving population health and closing the health inequity gap. Environmental features and public policies across sectors and jurisdictions are known to influence ECD. International comparisons provide valuable opportunities to better understand the impact of these ecological determinants on ECD. This study compared ECD outcomes between metropolitan Melbourne (Australia) and Montreal (Canada), and contrasted disparities across demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Methods: Population wide surveys using the Early Development Instrument (EDI) were conducted among 4–6 years-old children in both Montreal and Melbourne in 2012, measuring five domains of ECD: 1-Physical Health/Well-Being (PHYS); 2-Social Competence (SOC); 3-Emotional Maturity (EMOT); 4-Language/Cognitive Development (COGN); and 5-Communication Skills/General Knowledge (COMM). Descriptive analyses of summary EDI indicators and domain indicators (including median scores and interquartile ranges) were compared between metropolitan areas, using their respective 95% confident intervals (CIs). Analyses were performed using Stata software (v14). Results: The proportion of children developmentally vulnerable in at least one domain of ECD was 26.8% (95% CIs: 26.2, 27.3) in Montreal vs. 19.2% (95% CIs: 18.8, 19.5) in Melbourne. The Melbourne advantage was greatest for EMOT and COGN (11.5% vs. 6.9%; 13.0% vs. 5.8%). In both Montreal and Melbourne, boys, immigrants, children not speaking the language of the majority at home, and those living in the most deprived areas were at greater risk of being developmentally vulnerable. Relative risks as a function of home language and area-level deprivation subgroups were smaller in Montreal than in Melbourne. Conclusion: This study shows that Melbourne’s children globally experience better ECD outcomes than Montreal’s children, but that inequity gaps are greater in Melbourne for language and area-level deprivation subgroups. Further research is warranted to identify the environmental factors, policies, and programs that account for these observed differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Dea & Lise Gauvin & Michel Fournier & Sharon Goldfeld, 2019. "Does Place Matter? An International Comparison of Early Childhood Development Outcomes between the Metropolitan Areas of Melbourne, Australia and Montreal, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-17, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2915-:d:257609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2915/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/16/2915/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schenker N. & Gentleman J. F., 2001. "On Judging the Significance of Differences by Examining the Overlap Between Confidence Intervals," The American Statistician, American Statistical Association, vol. 55, pages 182-186, August.
    2. Doyle, Orla & Harmon, Colm P. & Heckman, James J. & Tremblay, Richard E., 2009. "Investing in early human development: Timing and economic efficiency," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-6, March.
    3. Lia C. H. Fernald & Elizabeth Prado & Patricia Kariger & Abbie Raikes, 2017. "A Toolkit for Measuring Early Childhood Development in Low and Middle-Income Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 29000, December.
    4. James J. Heckman & Stefano Mosso, 2014. "The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 689-733, August.
    5. Eric A. Hanushek & Ludger Woessmann, 2008. "The Role of Cognitive Skills in Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(3), pages 607-668, September.
    6. Carpiano, Richard M. & Lloyd, Jennifer E.V. & Hertzman, Clyde, 2009. "Concentrated affluence, concentrated disadvantage, and children's readiness for school: A population-based, multi-level investigation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 420-432, August.
    7. Sally A. Brinkman & Angela Kinnell & Amelia Maika & Amer Hasan & Haeil Jung & Menno Pradhan, 2017. "Validity and Reliability of the Early Development Instrument in Indonesia," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(2), pages 331-352, June.
    8. Mary Eming Young, 2007. "Early Child Development, From Measurement to Action : A priority for Growth and Equity," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6837, December.
    9. Sharon Goldfeld & Geoffrey Woolcock & Ilan Katz & Robert Tanton & Sally Brinkman & Elodie O’Connor & Talya Mathews & Billie Giles-Corti, 2015. "Neighbourhood Effects Influencing Early Childhood Development: Conceptual Model and Trial Measurement Methodologies from the Kids in Communities Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(1), pages 197-212, January.
    10. Magdalena Janus & Sally Brinkman & Eric Duku, 2011. "Validity and Psychometric Properties of the Early Development Instrument in Canada, Australia, United States, and Jamaica," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(2), pages 283-297, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kasim Allel & Gerard Abou Jaoude & Stavros Poupakis & Neha Batura & Jolene Skordis & Hassan Haghparast-Bidgoli, 2021. "Exploring the Associations between Early Childhood Development Outcomes and Ecological Country-Level Factors across Low- and Middle-Income Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Xiaoying Liu & Jere R Behrman & Aryeh D Stein & Linda S Adair & Santosh K Bhargava & Judith B Borja & Mariangela Freitas da Silveira & Bernardo L Horta & Reynaldo Martorell & Shane A Norris & Linda M , 2017. "Prenatal care and child growth and schooling in four low- and medium-income countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-21, February.
    3. Karen Villanueva & Hannah Badland & Robert Tanton & Ilan Katz & Sally Brinkman & Ju-Lin Lee & Geoffrey Woolcock & Billie Giles-Corti & Sharon Goldfeld, 2019. "Local Housing Characteristics Associated with Early Childhood Development Outcomes in Australian Disadvantaged Communities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-17, May.
    4. Charlotte Bartels & Maximilian Stockhausen, 2017. "Children's Opportunities in Germany – An Application Using Multidimensional Measures," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 18(3), pages 327-376, August.
    5. Özler, Berk & Fernald, Lia C.H. & Kariger, Patricia & McConnell, Christin & Neuman, Michelle & Fraga, Eduardo, 2018. "Combining pre-school teacher training with parenting education: A cluster-randomized controlled trial," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 448-467.
    6. Jorge Luis García & James J. Heckman, 2022. "Parenting Promotes Social Mobility Within and Across Generations," NBER Working Papers 30610, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bossavie, Laurent & Alderman, Harold & Giles, John & Mete, Cem, 2021. "The effect of height on earnings: Is stature just a proxy for cognitive and non-cognitive skills?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    8. Guido Neidhöfer & Nora Lustig & Mariano Tommasi, 2021. "Intergenerational transmission of lockdown consequences: prognosis of the longer-run persistence of COVID-19 in Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 571-598, September.
    9. Patrinos, Harry Anthony & Velez, Eduardo & Wang, Catherine Yan, 2013. "Framework for the reform of education systems and planning for quality," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6701, The World Bank.
    10. Spears, Dean & Lamba, Sneha, 2013. "Effects of early-life exposure to sanitation on childhood cognitive skills : evidence from India's total sanitation campaign," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6659, The World Bank.
    11. Achyuta Adhvaryu & Teresa Molina & Anant Nyshadham & Jorge Tamayo, 2023. "Helping Children Catch Up: Early Life Shocks and the PROGRESA Experiment," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(657), pages 1-22.
    12. Moreno ROMA & Paul HIEBERT, 2010. "Relative House Price Dynamics Across Euro Area and US Cities: Convergence or Divergence?," EcoMod2010 259600143, EcoMod.
    13. Reuß, Karsten, 2011. "Determinants of personality and skill development in the Socio-emotional environment during childhood," MPRA Paper 82818, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Chih Ming Tan & Dhanushka Thamarapani, 2019. "The impact of sustained attention on labor market outcomes: The case of Ghana," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 155-171, February.
    15. Borghans, Lex & Golsteyn, Bart H.H. & Heckman, James J. & Humphries, John Eric, 2016. "What Grades and Achievement Tests Measure," IZA Discussion Papers 10356, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Kaila, Heidi & Sahn, David E. & Sunder, Naveen, 2018. "Early Life Determinants of Cognitive Ability: A Comparative Study on Madagascar and Senegal," IZA Discussion Papers 11550, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Jana Gross & Simone Balestra & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2017. "Class Size in Early Grades, Student Grit and Later School Outcomes," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0129, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW), revised Sep 2018.
    18. Iacopo Morchio, 2022. "Policies for Early Childhood Skills Formation: Accounting for Parental Choices and Noncognitive Skills," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 22/755, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    19. begard Iversen & Anirudh Krishna & Kunal Sen, 2017. "Beyond poverty escapes – social mobility in the Global South: A survey article," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series 172017, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    20. Mark E. McGovern & Aditi Krishna & Victor M. Aguayo & S.V. Subramanian, 2017. "A Review of the Evidence Linking Child Stunting to Economic Outcomes," CHaRMS Working Papers 17-03, Centre for HeAlth Research at the Management School (CHaRMS).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:16:p:2915-:d:257609. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.