IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2011.300253_6.html

Parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and cognitive development in early childhood: Longitudinal evidence from Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Schady, N.

Abstract

Objectives: I estimated the association between parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and early child cognitive development in a sample of poor children in rural Ecuador. Methods: I used regression analysis to estimate the association between parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and the vocabulary, memory, and visual integration skills of children at early ages, controlling for possible confounders. The study is based on a longitudinal cohort of children in rural Ecuador (n=2118). Results: The schooling and vocabulary levels of mothers were strong predictors of the cognitive development of young children. Household wealth and child's height, weight, and hemoglobin levels explained only a modest fraction of the observed associations. The vocabulary levels of mothers and children were more strongly correlated among older children in the sample, suggesting that the effects of a richer maternal vocabulary are cumulative. Conclusions: Differences in children's cognitive outcomes start very early, which has important implications for the intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality. Programs that seek to increase early stimulation for disadvantaged children, perhaps through parenting programs or high-quality center-based care, hold promise.

Suggested Citation

  • Schady, N., 2011. "Parents' education, mothers' vocabulary, and cognitive development in early childhood: Longitudinal evidence from Ecuador," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(12), pages 2299-2307.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300253_6
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300253
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300253
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300253?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300253_6. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    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.