Quality of early childcare in the home and cognitive development at age 5: results from the South African birth to Twenty Plus cohort study

ABSTRACT

This study, using longitudinal data from the South African Birth to Twenty Plus study, assessed associations between early childcare quality in the home between six months and two years, household SES and cognitive development at age 5. Childcare quality was assessed using measures of maternal responsiveness and cognitive stimulation. Cognitive development at age 5 was assessed using the Revised Denver Pre-screening Developmental Questionnaire (R-DPDQ). Bivariate analysis and multiple linear regressions were conducted. The analytical sample comprised 856 mother–child pairs. Quality of care in the home differed significantly according to SES status, with more children in the low SES group receiving low quality of care. There was no association between childcare quality and cognitive development. There were differences in the cognitive development scores of children in different socio-economic groups; high levels of cognitive stimulation in the home were associated with increased R-DPDQ scores for children in the low SES group.

KEYWORDS:

• Child
• home
• quality of care
• cognitive
• development
• socioeconomic status
• low and middle-income countries

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Birth to Twenty Plus team and the study participants for their contribution in the data collection for the study. The support of the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the PSPPD.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, [WS], upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa under Grant [number 84394]. The financial assistance of the NRF towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and arrived at, are those of the author(s) and not necessarily attributed to the NRF.

Notes on contributors

Wiedaad Slemming

Wiedaad Slemming is an academic and a researcher in the Division of Community Paediatrics at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her role comprises undergraduate and postgraduate health science education and curriculum development, research and technical advisory work in the field of maternal and child health, early childhood development, childhood disability and health systems strengthening.

Refiloe Cele

Refiloe Cele is a researcher at the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE²RO) at the University of the Witwatersrand. She specializes in the economic evaluations of health and socio-economic interventions with a focus on efficient resource allocation in HIV treatment and early childhood development programmes.

Linda M. Richter

Linda Richter, a developmental psychologist, is the author or co-author of >400 papers and chapters on basic and policy research in child and family development. She led the 2017 Lancet Series Advancing Early Child Development: From Science to Scale, and is engaged in related follow-up implementation activities including the development of the Nurturing Care Framework and the Early Childhood Development Country Profiles as part of Countdown to 2030.