Relations Between Caregiver Education, Home Stimulation, and Children’s Development: Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

• In Event: The Role of Caregivers in Fostering Student Learning and Development

Abstract

The Family Investment Model shows that parents with higher educational attainment tend to provide more physical materials to promote their children’s development, but it has largely been studied in preschool-age children from high-income countries. This study examined the relations between caregiver education, home stimulation, and 9,099 0–3-year-old children’s developmental outcomes in eight low- and middle-income countries, and whether these processes vary across contexts and sex. Results showed that home stimulation partially mediated the association between caregiver education and children’s development, and that these associations varied across countries and between boys and girls. Findings suggest that it is important to understand the specificity versus universality of developmental processes within cultures and among boys and girls.

Authors

• Hang Heather Do, University of Pennsylvania

• Dana Charles McCoy, Harvard University