Media Release | July 30, 2009
Economically Diverse Neighbourhoods Best for Early Childhood Development: UBC Study
Young children who reside in mixed-income neighbourhoods are better prepared for school than are children from more homogeneously wealthy neighbourhoods, says a new University of British Columbia study.
The study finds that young children are better prepared for kindergarten when living in neighbourhoods with relatively equal proportions of affluent and disadvantaged families.
“Our research suggests that both affluent and lower-income families benefit from each other’s presence,” says lead author Richard Carpiano of UBC’s Department of Sociology.
Researchers say this increased community socioeconomic diversity benefits the development of its young children because it increases the opportunity for a wider range of residents to invest in the community.
“These more diverse communities may have a wider variety of services and amenities than places with higher concentrations of either affluent or low-income families, and thus may be able to better serve the needs of a wider range of families and children,” Carpiano says.
The findings are published in the August issue of the journal Social Science & Medicine.
Carpiano, along with Jennifer Lloyd and Clyde Hertzman of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) at UBC used existing early childhood development data from 433 British Columbia neighbourhoods and 37,798 kindergarten children.
The data comes from HELP’s Early Development Instrument (EDI), a tool that measures children’s readiness for school when they are in kindergarten. The EDI considers children’s physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication skills.
Carpiano and his colleagues measured the relative concentration of affluent residents versus lower-income residents in each of the 433 B.C. neighbourhoods with the goal of determining whether having higher concentrations of affluence in a community is more beneficial for child development.
The researchers found that having wealthy residents is a good thing – but only to a point. Increased affluence was associated with higher EDI scores, up to the point when the neighbourhood had a higher proportion of affluent than low income. That’s when the scores began to drop.
On average, the children with the highest scores came from communities with a wider diversity of economic backgrounds, Carpiano says. “Children seem to be doing better in places that do not have the highest concentrations of affluent residents.”
The researchers also note early childhood development has huge implications for health and well-being throughout life.
A recent UBC study from the departments of Psychology and Medical Genetics found people who grow up with low social status in early childhood have a greater risk of getting heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some cancers.
- 30 -
|
