Factors associated with cognitive achievement in late childhood and adolescence: the Young Lives cohort study of children in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam

BMC Pediatrics

Tim B Heaton²  Andreas Georgiadis³  Christine McClellan²  Renata Forste²  Benjamin T Crookston¹ 

[1] Department of Health Science, Brigham Young University, 229G Richards Building, Provo, UT 84602, USA;Department of Sociology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA;Department of International Development, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

关键词: Vietnam;    Peru;    India;    Ethiopia;    Household factors;    Child growth;    Child cognition;   

Others  :  1121235
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2431-14-253

 received in 2014-05-11, accepted in 2014-10-01,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

There is a well-established link between various measures of socioeconomic status and the schooling achievement and cognition of children. However, less is known about how cognitive development is impacted by childhood improvements in growth, a common indicator of child nutritional status. This study examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and child growth and changes in cognitive achievement scores in adolescents from resource-poor settings.

Methods

Using an observational cohort of more than 3000 children from four low- and middle-income countries, this study examines the association between cognitive achievement scores and household economic, educational, and nutritional resources to give a more accurate assessment of the influence of families on cognitive development. A composite measure of cognition when children were approximately 8, 12, and 15 years of age was constructed. Household factors included maternal schooling, wealth, and children’s growth.

Results

A positive and statistically significant relationship between household factors and child cognition was found for each country. If parents have more schooling, household wealth increases, or child growth improves, then children’s cognitive scores improve over time. Results for control variables are less consistent.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest there is a consistent and strong association between parental schooling, wealth, and child growth with child cognitive achievement. Further, these findings demonstrate that a household’s ability to provide adequate nutrition is as important as economic and education resources even into late childhood and adolescence. Hence, efforts to improve household resources, both early in a child’s life and into adolescence, and to continue to promote child growth beyond the first few years of life have the potential to help children over the life course by improving cognition.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Crookston et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

【 参考文献 】

• [1]McLoyd VC: Socioeconomic disadvantage and child development. Am Psychol 1998, 53:185.
• [2]Sirin SR: Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: a meta-analytic review of research. Rev Educ Res 2005, 75:417-453.
• [3]White KR: The relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Psychol Bull 1982, 91:461-481.
• [4]Arends-Kuenning M, Duryea S: The effect of parental presence, parents’ education, and household headship on adolescents’ schooling and work in Latin America. J Fam Econ Iss 2006, 27:263-286.
• [5]Chernichovsky D: Socioeconomic and demographic aspects of school enrollment and attendance in rural Botswana. Econ Dev Cult Chang 1985, 33:319-32.
• [6]Fuller B, Singer JD, Keiley M: Why do daughters leave school in Southern Africa? Family economy and mothers’ commitments. Soc Forces 1995, 74:657-680.
• [7]Lloyd CB, Blanc AK: Children’s schooling in sub-Saharan Africa: the role of fathers, mothers and others. Popul Dev Rev 1996, 22:265-98.
• [8]Patrinos HA, Psacharopoulos G: Socioeconomic and ethnic determinants of age grade distortion in Bolivian and Guatemalan primary schools. Int J Educ Dev 1996, 16:3-14.
• [9]Paxson C, Schady N: Cognitive development among young children in Ecuador: the roles of wealth, health, and parenting. J Hum Resour 2007, 42:49-84.
• [10]Schady N: Parental education, vocabulary, and cognitive development in early childhood: longitudinal evidence from Ecuador. Am J Public Health 2011, 101:2299-307.
• [11]Chowdhury SD, Ghosh T: Nutritional and socioeconomic status in cognitive development of Santal children of Purulia district, India. Ann Hum Biol 2011, 38:188-193.
• [12]Niles FS: Social class and academic achievement: a third world reinterpretation. Comp Educ Rev 1981, 25:419-30.
• [13]Lockheed ME, Fuller B, Nyirongo R: Family effects on students’ achievement in Thailand and Malawi. Sociol Educ 1989, 62:239-55.
• [14]Grantham-McGregor S, Cheung YB, Cueto S, Glewwe P, Richter L, Strupp B: Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries. Lancet 2007, 369:60-70.
• [15]Black RE, Allen LH, Bhutta ZA, Caulfield LE, de Onis M, Ezzati M, Mathers C, Rivera J: Maternal and child undernutrition: global and regional exposures and health consequences. Lancet 2008, 371:243-260.
• [16]Behrman J, Alderman H, Hoddinott J: Hunger and Malnutrition. In Global Crises, Global Solutions. Edited by Lomborg B. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 2004:363-420.
• [17]Behrman J, Hoddinott J, Maluccio J, Soler-Hampejsek E, Behrman E, Martorell R, Ramirez-Zea M, Stein AD: What Determines Adult Cognitive Skills? Impacts of Pre-Schooling Schooling and Post-Schooling Experiences In Guatemala. Washington DC, USA: IFPRI; 2008. Discussion Paper No. 826
• [18]Crookston BT, Dearden KA, Alder SC, Porucznik CA, Stanford JB, Merrill RM, Dickerson TT, Penny ME: Impact of early and concurrent stunting on cognition. J Matern Child Nutr 2011, 7:397-409.
• [19]Grantham-McGregor S: Linear growth retardation and cognition. Lancet 2002, 359:542.
• [20]Victora CG, Adair L, Fall C, Hallal PC, Martorell R, Richter L, Sachdev HS: Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital. Lancet 2008, 371:340-357.
• [21]Walker SP, Grantham-McGregor SM, Powell CA, Chang SM: Effects of growth restriction in early childhood on growth, IQ, and cognition at age 11 to 12 years and the benefits of nutritional supplementation and psychosocial stimulation. J Pediatr 2000, 137:36-41.
• [22]Walker SP, Chang SM, Powell CA, Grantham-McGregor SM: Effects of early childhood psychosocial stimulation and nutritional supplementation on cognition and education in growth-stunted Jamaican children: prospective cohort study. Lancet 2005, 366:1804-1807.
• [23]Checkley W, Epstein LD, Gilman RH, Cabrera L, Black RE: Effects of acute diarrhoea on linear growth in Peruvian children. Am J Epidemiol 2003, 157:166-175.
• [24]Walker SP, Grantham-McGregor SM, Himes JH, Powell CA, Chang SM: Early childhood supplementation does not benefit the long-term growth of stunted children in Jamaica. J Nutr 1996, 126:3017-3024.
• [25]Cheung Y, Ashorn P: Continuation of linear growth failure and its association with cognitive ability are not dependent on initial length-for-age: a longitudinal study from 6 months to 11 years of age. Acta Paediatr 2010, 99:1719-23.
• [26]Crookston BT, Penny ME, Alder SC, Dickerson TT, Merrill RM, Stanford JB, Porucznik CA, Dearden KA: Children who recover from early stunting and children who are not stunted demonstrate similar levels of cognition. J Nutr 2010, 140:1996-2001.
• [27]Crookston BT, Schott W, Cueto S, Dearden KA, Engle P, Georgiadis A, Lundeen EA, Penny ME, Stein AD, Behrman JR: Postinfancy growth, schooling, and cognitive achievement: Young Lives. Am J Clin Nutr 2013, 98:1555-1563.
• [28]Yang S, Tilling K, Martin R, Davies N, Ben-Shlomo Y, Kramer MS: Pre-natal and post-natal growth trajectories and childhood cognitive ability and mental health. Int J Epidemiol 2011, 40:1215-26.
• [29]Fink G, Rockers PC: Childhood growth, schooling, and cognitive development: further evidence from the Young Lives study. Am J Clin Nutr 2014, 100:182-188.
• [30]Singer JD, Willett JB: Applied Longitudinal Data Analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. London UK: Oxford University Press; 2003.
• [31]Barnett I, Ariana P, Petrou S, Penny ME, Galab S, Woldehanna T, Escobal JA, Plugge E, Boyden J: Cohort profile: the Young Lives study. Int J Epidemiol 2012, 42:1-8.
• [32]de Onis M, Onyango AW, Borghi E, Siyam A, Nishida C, Siekmann J: Development of a WHO growth reference for school-aged children and adolescents. Bull World Health Organ 2007, 85:660.
• [33]Filmer D, Pritchett L: Estimating wealth effects without expenditure data or tears: an application to educational enrolments in states of India. Demography 2001, 38:115-132.
• [34]Dahlgren J, Wikland KA: Swedish Study Group for Growth Hormone Treatment. Final height in short children born small for gestational age treated with growth hormone. Pediatr Res 2005, 57:216-22.
• [35]De Luca F, Astori M, Pandullo E, Sferlazzas C, Arrigo T, Sindoni A, Magazzu’ G: Effects of a gluten-free diet on catch-up growth and height prognosis in coeliac children with growth retardation recognized after the age of 5 years. Eur J Pediatr 1998, 147:188-91.
• [36]Prentice AM, Ward KA, Goldberg GR, Jarjou LM, Moore SE, Fulford AJ, Prentice A: Critical windows for nutritional interventions against stunting. Am J Clin Nutr 2013, 97:911-918.
• [37]Mendez MA, Adair LS: Severity and timing of stunting in the first two years of life affect performance on cognitive tests in late childhood. J Nutr 1999, 129:1555-62.
• [38]McCulloch A, Joshi HE: Neighborhood and family influences on the cognitive ability of children in the British National Child Development Study. Soc Sci Med 2001, 53:579-591.
• [39]Smith JR, Brooks-Gunn J, Klebanov PK: Consequences of Living in Poverty for Young Children’s Cognitive and Verbal Ability and Early School Achievement. In Consequences of Growing Up Poor. Edited by Duncan GJ, Brooks-Gunn J. New York: Russell Sage Foundation; 1997:132-189.
• [40]Davis-Kean P: The influence of parent education and family income on child achievement: The indirect role of parent expectations and the home environment. J Fam Psychol 2005, 19:294-304.
• [41]Kohl GO, Lengua LJ, McMahon RJ: Parent involvement in school conceptualizing multiple dimensions and their relations with family and demographic risk factors. J Sch Psychol 2000, 38:501-523.
• [42]Zadeh ZY, Farnia F, Ungerleider C: How home enrichment mediates the relationship between maternal education and children’s achievement in reading and math. Early Educ Dev 2010, 21:568-594.
• [43]Magnuson K: Maternal education and children’s academic achievement during middle childhood. Dev Psychol 2007, 43:1497-1512.
• [44]Cueto S, Leon J: Psychometric characteristics of cognitive development and achievement instruments in round 3 of Young Lives. Technical Note No. 25. Oxford, UK: Young Lives; 2012.