Associations of father absence and limited access to books and toys with early childhood development among children aged 0-6 years in a rural county lifted out of poverty in China.
Child Care Health Dev
; 50(1): e13145, 2024 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37313782
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
This study aimed to understand the early development and nurturing care environment of children aged 0-6 years in rural China and to evaluate the sex- and age-specific associations of nurturing care environment with child developmental outcomes.METHODS:
A cross-sectional survey involving 2078 children aged 0-6 years was conducted using a stratified cluster sampling strategy. We used face-to-face interviews to collect information on child, family and nurturing care. The Ages & Stages Questionnaires-Chinese version and ASQ Social-Emotional were applied to assess children's neuro- and social-emotional development, respectively. Lower neurodevelopmental scores indicate an increased risk for neurodevelopmental delay, and higher social-emotional scores are indicative to a risk of social-emotional problems. The multiple linear regression model examined the associations of nurturing care environments with childhood development.RESULTS:
Among the investigated children, the average age was (42.9 ± 19.8) months and 55.8% were boys; 67.9% of the children had absent fathers because of labour migration and 54.0% had limited access to books and toys. Overall, boys had a lower total neurodevelopmental score than girls; similar gender patterns were also found in the domains of communication, fine motor, problem-solving and person-social. Concurrent absent fathers and limited access to books and toys were significantly associated with reduced neurodevelopmental scores [ß - 11.44, 95% CI (-18.20, -4.68)] and increased social-emotional developmental scores [ß 5.88, 95%CI (1.35, 10.41)] after controlling for confounding factors. Sex-specific analysis only echoed the results in boys. Additionally, having an absent father and limited access to books and toys was associated with lower neurodevelopmental scores [ß - 14.58, 95%CI (-25.41, -3.75)] in children under 3 years of age and higher social-emotional developmental scores among children aged 3-6 years [ß 10.66, 95%CI (5.09, 16.24)].CONCLUSIONS:
Children, especially boys, with absent fathers due to labour migration have poorer neuro- and social-emotional development. Limited access to books and toys and father absence are linked to the children's developmental delay, especially for those under 3 years of age. Our findings suggest that intervention programs in resource-constrained rural areas are desirable; more importantly, such programs should begin before 3 years of age to achieve a benefit-cost outcome.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Desenvolvimento Infantil
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Deficiências do Desenvolvimento
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
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Qualitative_research
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Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Child
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Child, preschool
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Female
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Humans
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Infant
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Male
País como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article