the relationship between children’s development and socioeconomic factors in korea
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The Relationship between Children’s Development and Socioeconomic Factors in Korea. Bong Joo Lee Seoul National University. Introduction. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in children’s policy in Korea. Shifting focus: from ‘protection’ to ‘development’ - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Bong Joo LeeSeoul National University
The Relationship betweenChildren’s Development and
Socioeconomic Factors in Korea
• In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in children’s policy in Korea. – Shifting focus: from ‘protection’ to ‘development’
• However, lack of basic knowledge on the status of child development has been a factor hindering implementation of concrete polices and programs to promote child development in Korea.
• Purpose of this study:– To examine the level of development of Korean children
in 4 domains: language, cognition, psychosocial behav-iors, and physical health
– To examine the effects of family’s socioeconomic and social capital factors on children’s development
Introduction
• Family Income– Mcloyd, 1990; Duncan, Brooks-Gunn & Klebanov, 1994; Ryu & Choi, 2003;
Kim, 2008– Language development: Lee & Kawk, 2008– Cognitive development: McCulloch & Joshi, 2000– And many other studies in and out of Korea
• Family Structure– Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Runyan et al., 1998
• Family Process– Interaction patterns between parent and child: Chang, 1987, 1995;
Cochran-Smith, 1984; Goldfield & Snow, 1984– Parent’s child rearing attitude: Guerin, Gottfried & Thomas, 1997;
Wasserman et al., 1990 – Parent’s self efficacy: Woo & Lee, 1994; Lee & Han, 2004; Coleman & Kar-
raker, 1998• Community characteristics
– Kim, 2008; Boisjoly, Duncan & Hofferth, 1995; Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Garbarino & Sherman, 1980
Previous Studies: Factors affecting children’s development
• ‘Korea Children and Youth Survey, 2009’– Nationally representive sample of 6,922 chil-
dren (0-18 years old) and their parents– Household survey– 0-8 years old: responses from the parents on
child development and family characteristics– 9-18 years old: child survey and parent survey
Data
• Cognitive development– 0-8 years old: scales developed to measure basic cognitive
skills, mathematical thinking ability, scientific thinking abil-ity, and social thinking ability by specific age groups
– 9-18 years old: self reported school achievement level• Language development
– 0-8 years old: scales to measure speaking, reading, writing, and social communication ability by specific age groups
• Psychosocial development– K-CBCL child behavior problem scale– Internalizing and Externalizing problem behaviors
• Physical health– Self-reported health status(by parents and children)– Being hospitalized
Key Variables: Developmental Domains
• Family’s socioeconomic charactersitics– Family income– Level of parent’s education– Owned house
• Within family social capital– Family structure– Parent’s self efficacy– Level of parent-child communication openness– Time (playing and talking) spent with parents
• Outside family social capital: Community character-istics– Neighborhood environment: sense of belonging, informal
social control, social cohesiveness– Social support: economic, emotional, life, information
Key Variables:Socioeconomic and Social Capital Factors
Characteristics of the sampleVariables # %
GenderMale 3,035 50.8
Female 2.937 49.2
Family StructureBoth Parents 5,175 74.8
Not Both Parents 1,748 25.2
Age
0-2 1,118 16.1
3-5 1,151 16.6
6-8 1,188 17.2
9-11 1,160 16.8
12-18 2,306 33.3
Family Income
Below Poverty Level
1,768 25.5
From P.L. to 2 x P.L.
2,048 29.6
Over 2 x P.L. 3,105 44.9
RegionCity 6,366 92.0
Rural 557 8.0
Characteristics by income: 0-8 years old
Family Income
< P. L. P.L. to 2 x P.L. 2 x P.L. <
0-8 Years Old (N) 769 1,151 1,537
Development
Cognitive .83(.67) .94(.71) .83(.37)Language .73(.37) .77(.37) .94(.70)
PsySocio-Internaliz-ing 4.92(1.45) 4.87(1.35) 4.88(1.31)
PsySocio-Externaliz-ing 4.10(1.33) 4.19(1.32) 4.17(1.24)
Self-reported health 3.20(.62) 3.34(.60) 3.42(.55)
Hospitalized .16(.37) .15(.36) .13(.33)
SocioeconomicCharacteristics
Parent college edu-cated .13(.33) .30(.46) .55(.49)
Owned house .13(.34) .28(.45) .49(.50)
Within FamilySocial Capital
Parent efficacy 2.88(.53) 3.00(.47) 3.02(.42)Open communica-
tion 2.96(.73) 2.96(.68) 3.00(.68)Time spent .55(.49) .59(.49) .56(.49)
CommunityEnvironment .47(.23) .48(.22) .48(.22)
Social Support 1.74(.66) 1.92(.62) 1.98(.60)
Characteristics by income: 9-18 years old
Family Income
< P. L. P.L. to 2 x P.L. 2 x P.L. <
9-18 Years Old (N) 999 897 1,568
Development
Cognitive(School Achieve-
ment)2.44(1.88) 2.74(2.88) 2.90(2.20)
PsySocio-Internaliz-ing 4.66(1.07) 4.58(1.02) 4.42(.98)
PsySocio-Externaliz-ing 4.32(.75) 4.30(.76) 4.16(.72)
Self-reported health 3.07(.65) 3.24(.59) 3.30(.53)
Hospitalized .11(.31) .08(.26) .04(.19)
SocioeconomicCharacteristics
Parent college edu-cated .08(.27) .15(.36) .38(.48)
Owned house .11(.31) .33(.47) .69(.46)
Within FamilySocial Capital
Parent efficacy 2.79(.58) 2.90(.50) 3.01(.45)Open communica-
tion 2.96(.69) 3.00(.65) 3.03(.63)Time spent .26(.44) .26(.44) .32(.46)
CommunityEnvironment .46(.22) .49(.22) .51(.22)
Social Support 1.59(.58) 1.68(.57) 1.83(.57)
Multivariate analyses:factors affecting child development
Cognitive Lang. Psychosocial Health
0-8 9-18 0-8 0-8Internal
0-8Exter-
nal
9-18Internal
9-18External
0-8Reported
0-8Hospi-
tal
9-18Reported
9-18Hospital
Constant .10 2.70** -.01 5.76***4.58**
*4.14* 4.46*** 2.63** .27** 2.82** .21***
Male .01 .00 .03* .06 -.12 .05 -.04 .01 -.00 -.02 -.02*
City -.02 -.02 .02 .18* .10 .04 -.01 -.07 -.00 .00 -.02
Age .11*** -.02 .10*** .08*** .23** .03*** .01 -.01*** -.03** -.01* -.00
Poverty -.08* -.34* -.09** .04 -.09 .17* .12* -.13*** .02 -.15*** .05*
2 x P.L. .03 -.12 -.05** -.03 .04 .12* .10** -.08 .00 .00 .02
Parent College .08* .12 .04** .12 .07 .01 -.03 .04 -.05* -.04 -.01
House Owned -.04 .05 -.02 -.05 -.03 -.03 -.01 .05 -.02 .05 -.01
Both Parent .04 .05 .06* .11 .14 .08 .02 .10* -.03 .05 -.00
Parent Efficacy .01 .03 .03 -.39*** -.34*** -.07 -.09* .21** .01 .14*** -.04**
Open Comm. .13*** .07 .09*** -.07 -.01 -.02 -.02 .02 .01 .02 .02
Time Spent .02 .04 .04** -.11* -.05 -.07 -.03 .07** .02 .02 -.00
Environment.0
6.10 .06 -.09 -.01 -.14 -.08 -.06 -.05 .13** -.00
Social Support -.01 -.03 .00 -.03 -.03 .03 .02 .02 .01 .01 -.01
• Poverty is a major risk factor for low level of development– All ages:
• Low cognitive development• Low level of health
– 0-8 years: Low language development– 9-18 years: Increased internalizing and exter-
nalizing problem behaviors• Parent’s education level matters
– 0-8 years: higher education better cognitive and language developments
Key Findings
• Family structure matters too– 0-8 years: both parent better language development and
health• Parent’s self-efficacy is important
– Al l ages: child’s better psychosocial behaviors– All ages: better health
• Open communication style is important for cognitive and language developments for younger children
• For younger children: more time spent with parents pre-dicts– Better language development– Less internalizing problem behaviors– Better health
• Community environment is important for older children’s health
• Need for preventive child development support services and programs targeted for children in poverty
• Strengthening family support programs in-cluding child rearing education programs for parents– Importance of communication with children– Spend more time with children– Self-efficacy of parents
Implications for Policy