Understanding the Early Years - Early Childhood Development in Southwestern Newfoundland

IV. What Families and Communities in Southwestern Newfoundland Can Do to Improve children's Outcomes

Many studies of childhood outcomes have been based on investment theory, an economic theory that supposes that children receive an endowment from their parents. This includes biological attributes and a cultural endowment determined by their parents norms, values, and preferences; their income and wealth; and their access to resources. Parents invest time and money in their children, primarily through expenditures on education and health care.

Although the emphasis of investment theory has been on the transmission of earnings and wealth from one generation to the next, the idea that children's social, emotional, and intellectual development depends on parents investments is firmly rooted in the child development literature. These investments can include, but are not limited to, time spent with children.⁷

Other theories suggest that childhood outcomes result from family and parenting practices. Children are less likely to have behaviour problems or poor cognitive development if their parents are supportive, responsive, and affectionate.

Parents who are depressed or severely stressed are more likely to be tense and irritable with their children, and become less engaged in activities that contribute to their emotional and intellectual development. Marital relations become strained, and the overall ability of the family to function as a cohesive unit becomes compromised. These pressures also affect children's development.

Recent research based on the NLSCY,⁸ as well as analyses of the UEY communities data reported here, consider the influence of both family processes and community factors on childhood outcomes.

The most important family processes include the parents "style" of parenting, maternal depression, the cohesiveness or adaptability of the family, and the extent to which children are regularly engaged with learning activities.

Child care also plays a critical role. Many children have better outcomes if they have quality daycare, especially those from families of low socio-economic status.

Parents' ability to provide a supportive environment can be either helped or hindered by the neighbourhood and wider community. The quality and safety of the neighbourhood is important, but social factors also play a role.

Subsequently, we are interested in the degree of social support available to parents, and the extent to which parents have access to information and support through a strong network of friends and colleagues - factors embodied in the term "social capital". Social support and high levels of social capital are easier to build in a community when the population is not transient; thus, we also expect that child development may be affected by the extent to which the population is stable.

Finally, children's development is more likely to flourish if families have access to educational, cultural and recreational resources. These are important not only because they contribute directly to children's development, but also because they foster social support and increase social capital within the community.

As we have seen in the previous two sections, the children in Southwestern Newfoundland fared well on the outcome domains for the EDI and the NLSCY Community Study compared to the EDI-16 sample and the national NLSCY.

This is at odds with what one might expect, given the range of socio-economic conditions in which they are living. Many of the children live in less affluent families than other Canadian children, and on average their parents have lower levels of education, and less regular, full-time employment. The percentage of children living in single-parent homes is higher than the Canadian average. Therefore, factors other than those associated with their immediate socio-economic status must also be at play.

The strategy was to combine a large number of family and community variables into ten indicators that are essential for successful child development. These indicators had to meet two criteria:

There had to be evidence that the indicators were related to children's developmental outcomes, either from previous literature, or through analyses of the UEY and NLSCY data.
They had to be amenable to change through the efforts and actions of families and communities, through the support of community and volunteer agencies, and through social policy at the local, provincial and national levels.

In this section, the ten indicators are described; the results of the analyses with the UEY data are presented, which give some indication of the relative importance of these factors; and the scores on these indicators for the Southwestern Newfoundland community are shown.

A. Ten Indicators of Family and Community Success

Each of the indicators is presented with scores ranging from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest positive score.

1) Positive Parenting

This indicator was based on research that has shown that children have better developmental outcomes when their parents monitor their behaviour, are responsive to their needs, and encourage independence with a democratic approach.

This "style" of parenting, called "authoritative" parenting, stands in contrast to "authoritarian" parenting, characterized by parents being highly controlling and somewhat harsh in their approach to discipline, and "permissive" parenting, characterized by parents being overly-indulgent and setting few limits for behaviour.⁹

The scale includes items assessing the extent of positive interactions - how often the parents praise the child, how often they talk and play with them, and how often they laugh together. It includes items pertaining to whether parents are consistent and rational in their approach.

For example, parents were asked about situations when their child was misbehaving: were they likely to raise their voice, scold or yell at their child, calmly discuss the problem, or discuss alternate ways of behaving? Did they often have to punish their child repeatedly for the same behaviour? Did their punishment depend on the mood they were in?

2) Parental Engagement

This indicator measures the extent to which parents are engaged with their child in learning activities. It includes information on whether and how often parents tell stories to their children, teach them letters and numbers, teach them how to read, and encourage them to use numbers in their day-to-day activities. It also measures whether and how frequently children look at books and magazines, discuss them with their families and friends, and write or pretend to write with markers or pencils.¹⁰

3) Family Functioning

The concept of family functioning refers mainly to the cohesiveness and adaptability of the family. It concerns how well the family functions as a unit, more so than the relationships between spouses, or between parents and their children. A number of studies have shown that family functioning is related to children's developmental outcomes, especially children's behaviour.

In this study it is assessed with twelve items pertaining to a family's ability to communicate, make decisions and solve problems as a group, discuss feelings and concerns, get along together, and feel accepted for who they are.

4) Maternal Mental Health

The well-being of parents affects their parenting style and ability to respond to and engage their children in various learning activities.¹¹ Mothers well-being has a stronger effect on children's outcomes than fathers well-being.

This indicator was based on twelve items that are commonly used to measure depression. For example, it includes questions about whether the person regularly experiences feelings of depression and loneliness, crying spells, low energy levels, an inability to concentrate and sleep, and sense of being disliked by others. The scores were coded such that high scores indicate positive mental health; that is, the absence of depressed feelings.

5) Social Support

The level of social support available to parents affects their well-being, and indirectly affects their ability to function as parents and as role models within their family and community.

This indicator measures the level of support available to the respondent, and describes how much support that person receives from a community of friends and family members.

To determine this, respondents were asked whether they can get help in various situations, including emergencies; whether they are able to confide in and seek advice from others; whether they feel close to another person; and whether they feel they are a member of a group of people whose attitudes and beliefs they share.

6) Social Capital

A separate, but related indicator, social capital is a measure of the level of support available, collectively to groups within a community. Thus, it comprises information about the ability of neighbours to work together to solve problems, help each other, watch out for one another's children, and provide children with role models outside their immediate families.

7) Neighbourhood Quality

This indicator gauges the parents perception of their neighbourhood as a place to raise children. It measures features such as cleanliness, safety, quality of schools and nursery schools, adequacy of facilities for children (such as pools and playgrounds), health facilities, and the level of involvement of residents. It also asks people to rate their present neighbourhood in comparison to neighbourhoods they had lived in previously.

8) Neighbourhood Safety

This indicator assesses the level of the parents concern for children's safety in their neighbourhood. For example, parents were asked about the safety of parks and other play-spaces, crime rates, problems with older children in the neighbourhood, and whether they worried about children playing outside during the day.

9) Use of Resources

This indicator measures the use of recreational facilities, including parks, trails, play-spaces, skating rinks, pools, camping areas, skiing facilities, amusement parks, and community centers; educational services, such as libraries, science centers, family resource centers, and drop-in programs; and cultural resources, such as art museums, plays, musical performances, sports events, and movies.

10) Residential Stability

This factor was derived from a factor analysis of four variables measured as part of the 1996 Canadian Census that assessed the degree of transience of the local population. These include the proportion of people who had moved in the past five years or the past year, as well as the percentages of single parents and elderly in the neighbourhood. It was scaled in positive terms, such that a high score indicates greater stability. The average score for all enumeration areas in Canada is 5.0 on a 10.0 point scale.

B. The Relationship between Neighbourhood Factors and children's Outcomes

In the third section, statistical tools were used to estimate the relationships between family background factors and children's readiness to learn in three developmental domains: the cognitive domain, the behavioural domain, and the physical health and well-being domain.

In this section the analysis was extended to include the ten family and neighbourhood factors described previously. This is a fairly conservative test of the effects of these factors, as the analysis is essentially asking, "What are the effects of these factors, after taking account of children's family backgrounds?"

As in Section III, the results are presented as odds-ratios (see the Inset in Section III). For the ten scales describing family processes and neighbourhood factors, these provide an estimate of the effect associated with a one-point increase on the respective scale. The results, which are based on the combined data from the first five UEY communities, are presented in Table 4-1.

Table 4.1
The Relationship Between Readiness to Learn Outcomes and Family Background, Family Processes, and Community Factors
Five UEY Communities children's Outcomes
	Cognitive	Behavioural	Physical Health & Well-being
*Family Background*
Family Income ($10,000 units)	1.14	1.08	1.02
Mothers Education (years)	1.07	0.99	1.07
Fathers Education (years)	1.04	1.00	1.13
Mother Not Working Outside Home	0.97	1.24	1.13
Father Not Working Outside Home	1.18	1.38	1.17
Single-Parent Family	1.01	1.00	0.70
Number of Brothers and Sisters	0.92	0.96	0.84
*Family Processes*
Positive Parenting Practices	1.07	2.31	1.37
Engagement in Learning Activities	1.10	1.01	1.08
Family Functioning	0.98	1.05	0.86
Maternal Mental Health	0.98	1.12	0.99
*Community Factors*
Social Support	1.02	0.87	1.07
Neighbourhood Quality	1.03	1.01	1.00
Safe Neighbourhood	1.02	1.12	0.93
Social Capital	1.01	1.06	1.06
Use of Resources	1.11	1.04	1.10
Residential Stability	1.06	1.02	1.13
NLSCY in relation to 3 EDI domains for the first five UEY communities. Note: Figures in blue text are statistically significant at p<.10.

The co-efficients in Table 4.1 are slightly lower than in Table 3.1 because community factors are correlated with family background. For example, a family with a higher income generally lives in a relatively safer neighbourhood with a higher neighbourhood quality.

Of the ten factors, three have statistically significant relationships in the cognitive domain: engagement in learning activities, use of community resources, and residential stability.¹²

The engagement in learning results suggest that a child in a family with a rating of 6.0 on the 10-point scale would be 10% more likely to be ready to learn in the cognitive domain than a child living in a family with a rating of 5.0 (or a family rated 5.0 instead of 4.0, etc.). This means that parents who spend time reading to their children, and teaching them numbers and letters, have children with better cognitive scores.

An increase of one-point in "use of community resources" was associated with an 11% increase in cognitive scores. In other words, families that make use of various recreation, educational and leisure facilities, such as pools, play-spaces, libraries, drop-in programs, art museums and movies, have children with better cognitive scores.

Similarly, an increase of one point in residential stability was associated with a 6% increase in scores, which indicates that families with fewer moves have children with higher cognitive scores.

For the behavioural domain, positive parenting was by far the most important factor. A one-point increase on the positive parenting scale was associated with a dramatic increase in good behaviour outcomes of 131% in good behavior outcomes. This means that parents who monitor their children's behaviour, are responsive to their needs, and encourage independence, are much more likely to have children without behaviour problems.

Two other factors had statistically significant and positive effects: the mental health of the mother and living in a safe neighbourhood. Each of these factors was associated with a 12% increase in the likelihood of a child being ready to learn in the behavioural domain. This means that a mother with good mental health and families who live in safe neighbourhoods had children with fewer behavioural problems.

Social support had effects contrary to expectations. This may have arisen because parents whose children have behavioural problems may be more aware of the social support available to them, and therefore reported higher levels of support.

Residential stability also had a positive effect, meaning that children living in stable neighbourhoods were more likely to have positive health outcomes. The effects of family functioning were anomalous in this case, suggesting that families who have a child with health problems are more likely to be cohesive and adaptable.

Finally, for physical health and well-being, positive parenting again emerged as the most important factor. The analysis indicates that a one-point increase in the positive parenting scale is associated with a 37% increase in the likelihood of a child being ready to learn in this domain.

C. Community Indicator Scores for Southwestern Newfoundland

Figure 4.1 displays the Southwestern Newfoundland scores for each of the ten indicators described in this section. The figures in parentheses indicate the average scores for the five UEY communities.

The scores for Southwestern Newfoundland were particularly high on the two measures of parenting: 7.7 for positive parenting, and 8.9 for parental engagement. As parenting skills are of critical importance during the early years, the high scores of this community on these two indicators help explain why the children's outcomes are higher than expected given the relatively low socio-economic status.

This community was more stable than the other UEY communities, with a residential stability score of 7.0, compared with the UEY average of 4.7. Parents also considered their neighbourhood as a safe place to bring up their children. These factors may also have contributed to its success.

The community had relatively low scores on family functioning (7.2 compared to 7.5), social support (7.2 compared to 7.6), and use of resources (2.3 compared with 3.2). One might expect this community to score low on use of resources, given the long distance from this community to a major urban center, which results in a lack of access to certain kinds of educational, cultural, recreational resources.

Figure 4.1 - Community Indicator Scores for Southwestern Newfoundland

As described, there are a total of ten indicators of family and community success. Each indicator scale has a range from 0 to 10, with 10 being a positive score. A total score, out of 100, can be calculated for each community. The total score out of 100 for Southwestern Newfoundland is 69.9, which is 3 points above the average of 66.9 for the five UEY communities.

Since the score on use of community resources was low in all 5 UEY communities, this variable was further explored in each community to determine if a lack of availability of resources was the problem. For educational, cultural, and recreational resources, parents were asked, "Are most of these resources located within walking distance or within a short drive or bus ride?" The results for Southwestern Newfoundland presented in Figure 4.2, indicate that availability is an issue for educational and cultural resources, but is less of an issue for recreational resources.

Community Resources in Southwestern Newfoundland

A community can help serve its residents by offering a range of programs and services to meet the needs of children. These programs may offer opportunities to increase ones quality of life through a learning or recreational experience, while at the same time increasing social networks through participation. This section describes the resources available in Southwestern Newfoundland. See Appendix A for additional information concerning Early Learning and Care, Community-Based Educational Resources, Services for Children at Risk and with Special Needs, and Health and Community Services.

Eight program categories were examined:

Early Learning and Care;
Family Resources;
Community-Based Educational Resources;
Services for Children at Risk and Children with Special needs;
Health and Community Services;
Other Key Community Resources.

Early Learning and Care

There are very few preschools found in Southwestern Newfoundland. There is one Nursery school, located in Stephenville, that charges fees and a play school that is open to children ages two to four. One Co-op Preschool operated in Stephenville Crossing, offers reduced fees. Two unlicensed French preschools were located on the Port au Port Peninsula. A few areas had no preschools at all including St. Georges, Flat Bay and no English programs on the Port au Port Peninsula

There are 16 Kindergartens located throughout the region under the supervision of the Cormack Trail School Board. The 16 Kindergartens are scattered throughout each of the five regions of Southwestern Newfoundland. There are also two French Kindergartens on the Port au Port Peninsula. There were only two day cares located in all of Southwestern Newfoundland.

Community-Based Educational Resources

Schools

Southwestern Newfoundland had 19 Primary Schools. There were also two French primary schools in Southwestern Newfoundland, one in Cape St. George and the other in Mainland.

Libraries

There were 15 libraries and literacy programs located in Southwestern Newfoundland, but no ESL Program. Five of these libraries were public and the remaining 10 were school libraries that were available for public use.

Family Resource Programs

Positive parenting practices have been related to increased prosocial behaviours in children and a decreased likelihood of behavioural problems.¹³

Resources that support families include:

Family support centers (including drop in centers, toy lending libraries, play groups, support groups for teen mothers, and mothers networking groups);
Parenting classes and programs (including parenting programs for parents of young children, mom and tot programs, and parenting programs focusing on all stages of child development); and
Parent relief programs (providing a safe place for parents to drop off their children for a few hours).

Southwestern Newfoundland had 11 Family Resource Centers distributed throughout the five regions, located primarily in school settings. The centers were located in areas that are centrally found and, except for the centers in Ramea and Burgeo, served more than one community.

Figure 4.3 shows the distribution and locations of the parenting programs and family resources in Southwestern Newfoundland.

Health and Community

There are Public Health Offices located in Piccadilly (Region A), Stephenville Crossing and St. Georges (Region B), Burgeo (Region C) and Port aux Basques (Region D).

Services offered by Health and Community Services include: School Health Services, Health Check 3, Healthy Beginnings Program, Child Health Clinics, and Childbirth Education Programs.

Social Resources

Services for children at risk and children with special needs

Different services and programs were available for children-at-risk and their families, such as the Community Action Program for Children (Family Resources Centers). Of these:

Four were located on the Port au Port Peninsula (Port au Port East, Cape St. George, Mainland, and Ship Cove.)
One was located in Stephenville.
Four were located in Bay St. George South (Stephenville Crossing, St. Georges, Flat Bay and St. Fintans).

There were no centers in Region D. Where possible, the Community Action Committee, located in Stephenville, offered some consultation and outreach services.

There were two family resource centers with programs for children at risk in Region C operating on a limited scale. These are located in Burgeo and Ramea. The Community Action Committee also offers some consultation in Francois.

Other Key Community Resources

Social Housing

There are 365 units for the entire Stephenville district including Bay St. George South, Port au Port Peninsula, and all of Bay St. George.

Southwestern Newfoundland Maps

Map 1, Parenting programs and family resources in Region A. The family resource centers and parenting classes were fairly evenly distributed throughout Region A.

Map 2, Parenting programs and family resources in Region B. The urban areas in Region B are more densely populated with children. The family resource centers and parenting classes were available in all of the urban areas.

Map 3, Parenting programs and family resources in Region C. The southwestern tip of Region C had families with young children. Family resource centers, parenting classes, and public health nurses were available in both urban areas with children.

Map 4, Parenting programs and family resources in Region D. The urban areas of Region D were more densely populated with young children. There were parenting classes fairly evenly distributed throughout the southwestern communities in this region.

Map 5, Parenting programs and family resources in the town of Stephenville. The town of Stephenville was fairly densely populated with young children. There was a Family Resource Center and several parenting classes available in the town, as well as a public health nurse.

Map 1: Which areas of Region A had the greatest access to parenting programs and family resources

Map 2: Which areas of Region B had the greatest access to parenting programs and family resources?

Map 3: Which areas of Region C had the greatest access to parenting programs and family resources?

Map 4: Which areas of Region D had the greatest access to parenting programs and family resources?

Map 5: Which areas of region Stephenville had the greatest access to parenting programs and family resources?

Figure 4.2 - Availability of Community Resources for Southwestern Newfoundland and the Five UEY communities?

Figure 4.3 - Types of Care Arrangements

The NLSCY data also covered daycare. Early childhood programs, such as those offered at daycare, can increase a child's readiness for learning, thereby enhancing his or her lifelong academic and personal development.

But for these programs to be effective, they need to be developmentally appropriate and responsive to the experiences, backgrounds and needs of the children.¹⁴ Research suggests that, regardless of a child's socioeconomic status, four types of resources contribute to optimal child development: childcare centers, pre-schools, nursery schools, and kindergartens.

Moreover, research based on the first cycle of the NLSCY suggests that receiving daycare, either licensed or unlicensed, has positive effects on the language skills of children from low-income families. However, children from relatively affluent families tend to fare equally well across various types of care arrangements.¹⁵

In 1996-97, according to the NLSCY, about one-half (48.4%) of the population of 5 and 6 year old children in Canada received care for at least part of the day by someone other than their parents. In contrast, only 39.2% of the children in this Southwestern Newfoundland community received care outside of the home.

Figure 4.3 displays the percentage of children in differing types of care arrangements for Southwestern Newfoundland, compared with the figures for Canada for 1996-97, derived from the NLSCY.

The children in this community were less likely to receive daycare, compared with children living elsewhere in Canada, and were much more likely to receive care by a relative, either inside or outside the home. Only 3.1% of the children in this community were cared for at home by a non-relative, whereas this is the most popular type of care arrangement in Canada. A relatively high percentage of children, 7.3% compared with 5.2%, were cared for outside the home by a non-relative.

⁷McCain, M.N., & Mustard, J.F. (1999). Reversing the Real Brain Drain: Early Years Study Final Report.
Publications Ontario.
⁸Willms, J. D. (in press). Vulnerable Children: Findings from Canada's Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth. University of Alberta Press.
⁹Baumrind, D. (1991). The influence of parenting style on adolescent competence and substance abuse. Journal of Early Adolescence, 11(1), 56-95.
¹⁰McCain, M.N., & Mustard, J.F. (1999). Reversing the Real Brain Drain: Early Years Study Final Report. Publications Ontario.
¹¹Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G.J., & Britton, P.R. (1999). Are Socio-economic Gradients for Children Similar to Those for Adults? Achievement and Health of children in the United States. In D.P. Keatings & C. Hertzmans (Eds.) Developmental Health and the Wealth of Nations.
¹²Numbers above 1.0 indicate a positive relationship whereas numbers below 1.0 indicate a negative relationship.
¹³Chao, R.K., & Willms, D.J. (1998, October). Do parenting practices make a differences? Paper presented at Human Resources Development Canada's Investing in Kids Conference, Ottawa, Ontario.
¹⁴Doherty, G. (1997). Zero to six: The basis for school readiness. Hull, Québec: Human Resources Development Canada, R-97-8E.
¹⁵Kohen, D., Hertzman, C., & Willms, J. D. (in press). The importance of quality child care. In J. D. Willms (Ed.), Vulnerable Children: Findings from Canada's National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth. University of Alberta Press.

Contents

Understanding the Early Years - Early Childhood Development in Southwestern Newfoundland - June 2002