Understanding the Early Years Early Childhood Development in Niagara Falls, Ontario - June 2003

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Approximately 25.7% of children in Niagara Falls were living in low income families, and 27.5% were headed by a single parent. Families of low socio-economic status tend to be concentrated in the central and southern areas of the city. Despite this residential segregation, many low income children are faring quite well; however, many children in relatively affluent areas had low scores on several of the outcomes.

Results based on the Early Development Instrument, a measure derived from reports by children's kindergarten teachers, indicated that children in Niagara Falls fare especially well in physical health and well-being, social competence, and communication skills and general knowledge. The only weak area was emotional health and maturity.

Findings based on direct assessments of children's cognitive development and vocabulary indicated that the children in Niagara Falls scored slightly below the national norm for vocabulary, and slightly above the national norm for cognitive development.

The prevalence of hyperactive children was very high: about one-and-a-half times national norms. It should be noted that this is based on the parent's viewpoint and not on a professional assessment of the child.

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, the use of educational, cultural and recreational resources was quite low, 3.4 on a 10.0 point scale. At 3.6 on this scale, Niagara Falls's use of resources was 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 Niagara Falls, the availability of education resources was 65.3%, cultural resources was 49.4% and recreational resources was 59.9% compared with 69.2%, 50.0%, and 53.7%, for the combined NLSCY data of the seven UEY communities.

For Niagara Falls, the total score out of 100 for family and community indicators was 68.8, 1.6 points above the average of 67.2 for the seven 2001-02 UEY communities. Strengths in Niagara Falls were parental engagement, neighbourhood stability, and use of resources. Niagara Falls did not receive low scores on the other family process or community factors indicators.

Despite good overall development, children in Niagara Falls would benefit from efforts to improve their emotional health and maturity. Parents and community leaders may also consider measures that might address the prevalence of hyperactivity in their community. Efforts might be directed towards supporting single-parent families, and offering parent-training programs.

• ¹This "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, 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.