Who To Trust? Parental Access to Information about Early Childhood Development and Intervention in Kazakhstan

• In Event: Data based decision making in ECD

Proposal

In the scope of the conference theme “Envisioning Education in a Digital Society”, the current paper speaks to the issue of socioeconomic inequalities in information access. It specifically focuses on the impact of socioeconomic factors on parental information-seeking behavior to support early childhood development.
Children with special needs require timely and targeted interventions to optimize their developmental outcomes and improve their quality of life. The efficacy of early intervention programs largely depends on the active involvement of parents and caregivers in the child's developmental journey (Moore, 2012). However, numerous socioeconomic factors influence the extent and nature of parental knowledge and engagement in early childhood intervention (ECI) initiatives for children with special needs (Begum, 2019). Access to information about the development of the child is the first step for parents to seek the needed support.
The current paper presents findings on how socioeconomic factors, such as income, education, urban or rural place of residence, employment, and language spoken at home, impact parental information-seeking behavior on ECI in Kazakhstan. The evidence comes from a parental survey conducted from July to September of 2023, conducted using a snowball sampling approach. The data includes responses from 191 parents of children younger than seven years of age residing in the two largest cities of the country, Astana and Almaty, and their surrounding rural regions.
The analysis of parental information-seeking behavior in this paper shows that the ease of early child development and intervention information access is, on average, the same for respondents in all household income groups, levels of education, employment status, and language spoken at home. There are differences between urban and rural respondents in this respect. In terms of the most helpful information sources on the development of the child, respondents trust other parents, friends, and acquaintances, followed by social media and a general internet search. Yet, in the case of concerns about whether the development of the child corresponds to the average norm, most respondents sought the advice of the child’s pediatrician and other doctors, with social media information securing third place in this rank. The analysis by socioeconomic characteristics showed that there was no statistically significant difference between respondents by the language spoken at home and the income level in the use of various information sources. Statistically significant differences, however, were associated with the place of residence, education, and employment.
These results suggest that socioeconomic factors do not exert an overwhelming influence on parental strategies in accessing information about ECI in Kazakhstan. Although there are some differences, on average, parents in Kazakhstan seem to be in a rather similar situation in terms of ECI information access. That is, regardless of socioeconomic standing, parents of young children and children with special needs are likely to seek support for the development of their child in a similar overall environment.
The most pronounced difference we observed between respondents who live in urban and rural areas. An intervening factor here in the context of our study might be the presence of a child with special needs in the family. In our sample, parents of children with special needs were concentrated in Astana and Almaty, the largest cities nationally, more than in their proximal rural regions. Our analysis indicated that parents in cities seem to be under more stress than those in rural regions. They felt less morally supported in caring for the development of their child than parents in rural areas and they felt it was hard to find information about the development of their child. Perhaps the reason for this situation was different social connectedness and feelings of isolation among rural and urban inhabitants. Research suggests that geography is an important factor in people’s well-being, indicating that urban residents might feel more isolated than people in rural areas (Repke & Ipsen, 2020).
Social media and other parents were the most frequent and perceived helpful sources of information on a child’s development. Yet, when it came to concerns, parents first and foremost relied on the advice from the child’s pediatrician or other medical personnel. The prevalence of the use of social media and information from other parents in combination with seeking medical advice suggests that integrating these information domains to ensure access to reliable information about the development of the child would be beneficial for raising the average ECI awareness.
This paper provides information useful for designing non-formal parental education initiatives to support early childhood development and intervention. Academically, this paper presents evidence that allows us to identify those socioeconomic factors that affect parental knowledge about ECI in the Central Asian context characterized by the emerging social model of disability and inclusive education.
References
Begum, T. (2019). Parental knowledge, attitudes and practices in early childhood development among low income urban parents. Universal journal of public health, 7(5), 214-226. doi:10.13189/ujph.2019.070504
Moore, T. G. (2012). Rethinking early childhood intervention services: Implications for policy and practice. Pauline McGregor Memorial Address.
Repke, M., & Ipsen, C. (2020). Differences in social connectedness and perceived isolation among rural and urban adults with disabilities. Disability and Health Journal, 13(1). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1936657419301190

Authors

• Rita Kasa, University Mohammed VI Polytechnic Institute of Education Sciences

• Assem Tazhiyeva, Ozim Platform Public Foundation