IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i8p1347-d222805.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Aboriginal Status and Neighborhood Income Inequality Moderate the Relationship between School Absenteeism and Early Childhood Development

Author

Listed:
  • Nazeem Muhajarine

    (Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada
    Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan, 107 Wiggins Rd., Saskatoon, SK S7N 5E5, Canada)

  • Daphne McRae

    (Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada)

  • Mohsen Soltanifar

    (Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, University of Saskatchewan, 104 Clinic Place, Saskatoon, SK S7N 2Z4, Canada
    Biostatistics Division, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, 155 College St Room 620, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7, Canada)

Abstract

The negative impact of school absenteeism on children’s academic performance has been documented in the educational literature, yet few studies have used validated development indicators, or investigated individual and neighborhood characteristics to illuminate potential moderating factors. Using cross-sectional Early Development Instrument (EDI) panel data (2001–2005) we constructed multilevel linear and logistic regression models to examine the association between school absenteeism and early childhood development, moderated by Aboriginal status, length of school absence, neighborhood-level income inequality, and children’s sex assigned at birth. Our study included 3572 children aged four to eight in 56 residential neighborhoods in Saskatoon, Canada. Results indicated that Aboriginal children missing an average number of school days (3.63 days) had significantly lower EDI scores compared to non-Aboriginal children, controlling for individual and neighborhood factors. As school absenteeism lengthened, the gap in EDI scores between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children narrowed, becoming non-significant for absences greater than two weeks. Children with long-term school absence (>4 weeks of school), living in neighborhoods of low income inequality, had significantly better physical and social development scores compared to children from medium or high income inequality neighborhoods. Across all EDI domains, girls living in neighborhoods with low income inequality had significantly better EDI scores than boys in similar neighborhoods; however, sex-differences in EDI scores were not apparent for children residing in high income inequality neighborhoods. Results add to the literature by demonstrating differences in the relationship between school absenteeism and early developmental outcomes moderated by Aboriginal status, length of school absence, neighborhood income inequality, and sex assigned at birth. These moderating factors show that differential approaches are necessary when implementing policies and programs aimed at improving school attendance.

Suggested Citation

  • Nazeem Muhajarine & Daphne McRae & Mohsen Soltanifar, 2019. "Aboriginal Status and Neighborhood Income Inequality Moderate the Relationship between School Absenteeism and Early Childhood Development," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:8:p:1347-:d:222805
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1347/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/8/1347/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John Richards & Jennifer Hove & Kemi Afolabi, 2008. "Understanding the Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal Gap in Student Performance: Lessons From British Columbia," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 276, December.
    2. Nazeem Muhajarine & Chassidy Puchala & Magdalena Janus, 2011. "Does the EDI Equivalently Measure Facets of School Readiness for Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal children?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 103(2), pages 299-314, September.
    3. Kawachi, Ichiro & Kennedy, Bruce P., 1997. "The relationship of income inequality to mortality: Does the choice of indicator matter?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(7), pages 1121-1127, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Agata Wypych-Ślusarska & Karolina Krupa-Kotara & Ewa Niewiadomska, 2022. "Social Inequalities: Do They Matter in Asthma, Bronchitis, and Respiratory Symptoms in Children?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-13, November.
    2. Adriane Mesquita de Medeiros & Mariana Fernandes Lobo & Marcel de Toledo Vieira & Lia Duarte & João Paulo Monteiro Carvalho & Ana Cláudia Teodoro & Rafael Moreira Claro & Nayara Ribeiro Gomes & Albert, 2023. "Social Vulnerability of Brazilian Metropolitan Schools and Teachers’ Absence from Work Due to Vocal and Psychological Symptoms: A Multilevel Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-15, February.

    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. Wong, Irene O.L. & Cowling, Benjamin J. & Lo, Su-Vui & Leung, Gabriel M., 2009. "A multilevel analysis of the effects of neighbourhood income inequality on individual self-rated health in Hong Kong," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 124-132, January.
    2. Subramanian, S.V. & Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Osypuk, Theresa L., 2005. "Racial residential segregation and geographic heterogeneity in black/white disparity in poor self-rated health in the US: a multilevel statistical analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(8), pages 1667-1679, April.
    3. Godoy, Ricardo & Byron, Elizabeth & Reyes-García, Victoria & Vadez, Vincent & Leonard, William R. & Apaza, Lilian & Huanca, Tomás & Pérez, Eddy & Wilkie, David, 2005. "Income inequality and adult nutritional status: Anthropometric evidence from a pre-industrial society in the Bolivian Amazon," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(5), pages 907-919, September.
    4. Stelios Rozakis & Athanasios Kampas, 2022. "An interactive multi-criteria approach to admit new members in international environmental agreements," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 3461-3487, September.
    5. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Elena Cottini & Herrarte, A. (Ainhoa), 2012. "GINI DP 39: Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: How Important is Material Deprivation?," GINI Discussion Papers 39, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    6. Peter Lindert, 2003. "Why The Welfare State Looks Like a Free Lunch," Working Papers 59, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    7. Alexandre Laurin, 2009. "Cleaning Up the Books: A Proposal for Revamping Corporate Group Taxation in Canada," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 284, March.
    8. Thayer Alshaabi & David R Dewhurst & James P Bagrow & Peter S Dodds & Christopher M Danforth, 2021. "The sociospatial factors of death: Analyzing effects of geospatially-distributed variables in a Bayesian mortality model for Hong Kong," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Angus Deaton, 2003. "Health, Inequality, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 41(1), pages 113-158, March.
    10. Bengt Starrin & Cecilia Åslund & Kent Nilsson, 2009. "Financial Stress, Shaming Experiences and Psychosocial Ill-Health: Studies into the Finances-Shame Model," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 283-298, April.
    11. Jennifer M. Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2002. "Income Inequality and Health Status in the United States: Evidence from the Current Population Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(3), pages 510-539.
    12. Sebastian Baumeister & Georg Schomerus & Carsten-Oliver Schmidt & Franz Möckel & Neeltje den Berg & Wolfgang Hoffmann & Henry Völzke & Hans Grabe, 2015. "Change in depressive symptoms and mental health-related quality of life in northeast Germany between 1997–2001 and 2008–2012," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 60(1), pages 33-39, January.
    13. Maggie Jones & Michael Barber, 2019. "Inequalities in Test Scores between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Youth in Canada," Department Discussion Papers 1904, Department of Economics, University of Victoria.
    14. Acevedo-Garcia, Dolores & Pan, Jocelyn & Jun, Hee-Jin & Osypuk, Theresa L. & Emmons, Karen M., 2005. "The effect of immigrant generation on smoking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1223-1242, September.
    15. Song, Teresa, 2024. "Why did gender inequality lag GDP per capita and human development growth in Korea over 1976-1996?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122006, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Masako Horino & Sze Yan Liu & Eun-Young Lee & Ichiro Kawachi & Roman Pabayo, 2020. "State-level income inequality and the odds for meeting fruit and vegetable recommendations among US adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, September.
    17. Nilsson, Therese & Bergh, Andreas, 2012. "Income Inequality and Individual Health: Exploring the Association in a Developing Country," Working Papers 2012:1, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    18. Ram, Rati, 2005. "Income inequality, poverty, and population health: Evidence from recent data for the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(12), pages 2568-2576, December.
    19. Hou, Feng & Myles, John, 2005. "Neighbourhood inequality, neighbourhood affluence and population health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 1557-1569, April.
    20. Rambotti, Simone, 2015. "Recalibrating the spirit level: An analysis of the interaction of income inequality and poverty and its effect on health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 123-131.

    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:8:p:1347-:d:222805. 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.