Understanding the Early Years - Early Childhood Development in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - November 2002

Study Highlights

Approximately 34.9% of children in Saskatoon were living in low income families, 18.1% were Aboriginal, and 30.6% were headed by a single parent. Families of low socioeconomic status tend to be concentrated in certain areas of the city, particularly west of the South Saskatchewan River. Despite this residential segregation, many children in poor areas are faring quite well, while many children in relatively affluent areas had low scores on several of the outcomes measured.

Results based on the Early Development Instrument, a measure derived from reports by children's kindergarten teachers, indicated that children in Saskatoon fare especially well in social competence, and communication skills and general knowledge. Its scores for physical health and well-being, and emotional health and maturity, were close to Canadian norms. The only weak area was language and cognitive development.

Findings based on direct assessments of children's cognitive development and vocabulary indicated that the children in Saskatoon scored slightly below national norms in cognitive development and close to the norm for vocabulary.

The prevalence of children with behaviour problems was very high: about one-and-a-half to two times national norms.

The relationship of family background, family processes, and community factors from the NLSCY in relation to the EDI domain scores were studied for all seven 2001-02 UEY communities together.

• The parents' level of education, whether the parents were working outside the home, social support, and use of community resources were the most important variables related to the cognitive domain.
• Positive parenting¹ was by far the most important factor explaining the outcomes in the behavioural domain, followed by the mother's mental health, and community social capital.
• Whether the child was living in a two parent or single parent family, and whether the father was working outside the home were the most important variables influencing physical health and well-being.

While family background was particularly important in the cognitive domain, the role of positive parenting was an especially important predictor of behaviour problems.

In all seven 2001-02 UEY communities, use of educational, cultural and recreational resources was quite low, 3.4 on a 10.0 point scale. At 3.7 on this scale, Saskatoon's use of resources is higher than the average, but still low enough that there is room for marked improvement.

Because it was low overall for the seven communities, use of resources was explored further by considering the availability of educational, cultural and recreational resources for the seven UEY communities. In Saskatoon, the availability of education resources was 80.7%, cultural resources was 71.4% and recreational resources was 56.6% compared with 69.2%, 50.0%, and 53.7%, for the combined NLSCY data of the seven UEY communities. Thus, Saskatoon is well served, but the use of existing resources is low.

For Saskatoon, the total score out of 100 for family and community indicators was 67.3, 0.1 points above the average of 67.2 for the seven 2001-02 UEY communities. Its strengths were strong social support, high levels of neighbourhood quality, and use of resources. It scored low on the indicators of positive parenting and maternal mental health.

Despite good overall development, children in Saskatoon would benefit from efforts to improve their language and cognitive development, and behavioural outcomes. Efforts might be directed towards better behavioural outcomes by improving parenting skills, decreasing levels of maternal depression, and providing interventions for children experiencing problems.

¹ This "style" of parenting, called "authoritative" parenting, is characterized by parents monitoring their children's behaviour, being responsive to their needs, and encouraging independence with a democratic approach. It stands in contrast to "authoritarian" parenting, characterised by parents being highly controlling and somewhat harsh in their approach to discipline, and "permissive" parenting, characterised by parents being overly indulgent and setting few limits for behaviour.