Understanding the Early Years - Early Childhood Development in the Montreal study area (Quebec) - November 2003

In this section, information about the relationship between family background and children's outcomes is presented, with special reference made to the family background of the children in the Montreal study area. The relationship between family background and children's outcomes is not straightforward. An important goal of Understanding the Early Years is to distinguish the effects of family background, and those associated with family processes and community factors on children's outcomes. All three sets of contributing factors were measured. First, information on seven characteristics of family background is presented. In an earlier study of children's development, based on the national sample of children who participated in the first cycle of the NLSCY, these family background characteristics were significantly related to a range of children's developmental outcomes.

The values, calculated for the seven family background characteristics, are:

• Family income (in $10,000 units): considered to be low if less than $25,000;
• Mother's level of education: considered to be low if the mother did not complete high school;
• Father's level of education: considered to be low if the father did not complete high school;
• Mother's employment status: considered not working outside the home if the mother worked fewer than 25 weeks during the past year;
• Father's employment status: considered not working outside the home if the father worked fewer than 25 weeks during the past year;
• Single-parent family: only one parent or guardian living at home;
• Number of brothers and sisters: the number of siblings living at home.

Figures 3.1 and 3.2 show the relative levels of income, education, employment and single-parenthood for families in the study area, as well as provincial and national levels for 1996-97. About 40.4% of families in the Montreal area were considered low income, compared with 23.8% in Quebec and 22% in Canada.

Only 76.9% of mothers in the Montreal study area had completed high school, compared with provincial (84.6%) and national (86.3%) averages. The number of mothers in the area who had not finished high school was almost twice as high as the national percentage. For fathers, the completion rate of 85% is above the provincial and national rates (82.7% and 83.5%, respectively).

Unemployment (or non-participation in the labour force) for parents in the Montreal study area is higher than provincial and national averages. About 54% of mothers were working outside the home, compared with 60% provincially and 64% nationally. Likewise, only 82% of fathers were working outside the home, compared with 89% provincially and 91% nationally. Indeed, the prevalence of fathers not working outside the home is almost twice the provincial and national averages.

One of the most striking demographic characteristics of families in the study area is the high percentage of single-parent families. About 65% of children in the Montreal area were in two-parent families, while provincial and national figures are above 80%. The prevalence of single-parent families in the study area is more than twice the national rate.

 

The map describing the socio-economic status of families (Figure 1.1) indicates that the most prosperous families live in the centre-north section of the study area, and the most disadvantaged families live in the northwest or east. The maps showing the EDI outcomes (Figures 2.3 to 2.7) do not reflect the expected pattern of low scores in low income neighbourhoods. Socio-economic and demographic factors alone do not explain why some children are better prepared in their cognitive and behavioural skills when they enter school.

A. The effects of family background factors on children's development

The analysis focused on the factors contributing to whether or not a child had significantly low scores in one of the three developmental domains, these being the cognitive domain, the behavioural domain, and physical health and well-being. Children with very low scores are at risk of not achieving their full potential during the schooling years.

A child was considered to be at risk in the cognitive domain if he or she had a low score (i.e., below the 10% threshold) on the Receptive Language Test, the Developmental Assessment (Who Am I ?), or on the two cognitive domains of the Early Development Instrument.

Similarly, a child was considered at risk in the behavioural domain if he or she had a low score on the Positive Behaviour scale or on either of the two domains of the EDI pertaining to behaviour, or had any one of the four behaviour problems (indirect aggression, hyperactivity, emotional disorder/anxiety, and physical aggression/conduct disorder).

A child was considered at risk in the physical health domain if he or she scored below the low-score threshold on the Physical Health and Well-being domain of the EDI.

The analysis below focuses on positive outcomes, that is, it asks whether children will have a ''good start in life''. Children who are not vulnerable in any of the three domains are likely to have a better chance of achieving their full potential during the schooling years. Therefore, for each of the family background factors, the odds-ratio associated with whether a child was not at risk in these three domains was estimated (see Table 3.1) using the sample of children from all seven of the 2001-02 UEY communities. Thus, the results indicated in Table 3.1 apply to all 2001-02 communities, and are not specific to the Montreal UEY site.

Table 3.1 - Relationship between children's outcomes and family background

	Children's Outcomes
	Cognitive	Behavioural	Physical Health & Well-being
Family Income ($10,000 units)	1.07	1.04	1.12
Mother's Education (years)	1.11	1.02	1.08
Father's Education (years)	1.08	1.03	1.12
Mother Not Working Outside the Home	0.71	0.93	0.78
Father Not Working Outside the Home	0.58	0.92	0.83
Single-Parent Family	0.73	0.71	0.65
Number of Brothers and Sisters	0.92	0.93	0.92
Source: Figures in blue text are statistically significant at p<.10. Results are based on the relationship of NLSCY family background variables with three outcomes for the 7 UEY 2001-02 communities.

 

The results indicate that family income and the educational level of the mother are important protective factors for cognitive development. For example, the odds of being not at risk in the cognitive domain for a child living in a family with an income of $40,000 is about 7% greater than a child who had similar background characteristics but had a family income of $30,000. Similarly, each additional year of education of a child's mother or father increases the odds of not being at risk in the cognitive domain by about 8% to 11%.

In contrast, children whose parents were not working outside the home were more likely to be at risk in the cognitive domain, as were children living in single-parent families. The effects of these factors were considerable: each was associated with an increase in the odds of being at risk by about 29% to 42%.

The effects of family background for the behavioural domain were consistent with the effects for cognitive development, but they were generally weaker and not statistically significant. The exception was living in a single-parent family. Children from single-parent families were on average about 29% more likely to be at risk.

These effects of family income and father's education were similar for children's physical health and well-being: a $10,000 increase in family income was associated with a 12% decrease in the odds of being at risk, and each additional year of a father's education was associated with a 12% decrease in the odds of being at risk. The other family background effects were not statistically significant.

Given the high percentage of mothers in the Montreal area who have not finished high school, as well as the fathers and mothers who do not work outside the home, and the high number of single-parent families, the relatively low scores on certain cognitive measures (receptive vocabulary, for example) of the children in the study is not surprising. About 18% of the children in the study area were children in immigrant families, and may not be fluent in either English or French yet.

The results also show that there are more children with behavioural problems in single-parent families. The high number of single-parent families may be a partial explanation for the relatively high number of children displaying hyperactivity and emotional maturity problems. However, the relatively high scores of the children sampled for positive behaviour and certain other behavioural measures are unexpected in light of the high number of single-parent families. The high scores for physical health and well-being are harder to explain, given the relatively high prevalence of low-income families and mothers with no high school diploma-two factors that generally determine physical health and well-being. However, it is likely that other aspects of family and community life have also influenced children's outcomes. We examine these factors in the next section.