Poster #217 - Early Education Policy and Preschool Attendance in China: Findings from the China Family Panel Studies

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Social Policy

Integrative Statement

Preschool education reduces family socioeconomic status (SES) gaps in children’s school readiness. Hence, enhancing access to preschool has been an educational policy priority in China since a national directive was issued in 2010. To our knowledge, no study has examined the extent to which this directive has impacted preschool attendance (PA) rates across the country. Against this background, this study examined changes in PA rates after 2010, focusing on urban-rural disparities and SES-related variations.
This study used four waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS, Waves 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016), a longitudinal survey with a nationally representative sample. Participants included 7,386 3- to 5-year-old children (3,914 boys) and their families. About 42% of families had children who were 3 years in either 2010, 2102 or 2014 and these families were surveyed twice. Primary caregivers provided child-, parent-, and family-related information and indicated whether a child attended a preschool (kindergarten or pre-primary class) in individual interviews, conducted over the phone or in face-to-face sessions.
Descriptive results showed that after 2010, overall PA rates increased, with larger increases in PA rates for children who (i) lived in rural areas; (ii) were from provinces with low GDP; (iii) had parents with less than a secondary education; and (iv) were from low-income families (See Figure 1). Binary logistic regression with rich controls indicated that for the whole group, children of later cohorts were more likely to attend preschool (e.g., Wave 2016, Odd Ratio = 1.74), but that rural children, children of parents with lower levels of education and those from poor families were less likely to attend preschool (p < .001) than other children (See Table 1). Significant effect of interaction between wave and urbanicity indicated an increased likelihood of PA for rural children in later waves as compared to earlier waves (p < .05). But the effect of SES-related factors (parental education and household income) on PA in different waves did not vary (p > .05), despite for an increased likelihood of PA for children of mothers with high levels of education in 2012 and 2014. We also considered children who were observed twice to take advantage of wave-by-wave variation in PA for same age children. Analyses indicated similar results as that for the whole group: (i) increased likelihood of PA for children born later; (ii) reduced likelihood of PA for rural children, children of parents with low levels of education and from low-income families; and (iii) smaller urbanicity effect on PA over waves. Moreover, children’s younger age, parents’ low educational expectations, and availability of caregiving grandparents predicted lower likelihood of PA.
Our findings indicate that the 2010 policy enhanced PA with significant increases for children from rural areas and low-SES families. However, the effect of urbanicity and SES-related factors on PA remained over waves. Child age, parents’ educational beliefs and the availability of home-based child care also influenced PA. Implications to the findings for increasing preschool access and its quality for socially disadvantaged children are discussed.

Authors

• Yufen Su, The University of Hong Kong
  Presenting Author

• Carrie Lau, The University of Hong Kong
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nirmala Rao, Hong Kong University
  Non-Presenting Author