The Experiences of Child Poverty in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Community Mechanisms of Urbanicity and Academic Achievement

• In Event: Diversity in Children's Development across Neighborhood Contexts

Abstract

In recent decades, poverty has become more urbanized in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Yet, in many LMIC, the majority of poor families continue to live in rural settings (Clifton, 2015). Research conducted in the U.S. suggests that poverty and urbanicity interface in complex ways to shape children’s development, with children in large urban settings scoring below their counterparts in rural communities when it comes to academic achievement (Miller et al., 2013). In the developing world, evidence suggests that patterns differ, with children growing up in rural areas faring worse than their urban counterparts on educational outcomes (Clifton, 2015).

Previous evidence suggests that the urbanicity differences in achievement could be due to low economic resources, limited school resources, and lack of public investment in infrastructure in rural areas (Khan, 2001). However, there is limited empirical assessment of the specific community resources that underlay urbanicity-related differences in academic achievement. Furthermore, researchers have not considered whether urban children are also at disadvantage due to higher stressors in cities. This study proposes to fill this gap by exploring whether a set of resources (utilities, education availability, and health facilities) and stressors (violent crime and pollution) underlie the urbanicity achievement gaps of children in low-income communities. A comprehensive characterization of the mechanisms that give rise to the rural–urban disparities in poor children’s development is crucial for informing efforts aimed to improving contextual supports for disadvantaged children.

Drawing data from the Young Lives Study, a longitudinal multi-method investigation following economically disadvantaged children in India (N=2,011) and Peru (N=2,052), this study examined the mediators of the math and receptive vocabulary urban-rural gap at ages 5, 8, 12, and 15. The data included comprehensive measures of children’s academic outcomes as well as a range of child, family, and community factors that may play a role in explaining the differences children’s development across urban and rural communities. Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to explore these associations (Heck & Thomas, 2015), allowing the nesting of children within communities.

Comparisons of academic achievement and community factors by urbanicity (Table 1) indicated that the urban-rural achievement gap favors urban children. It also indicates that urban children experience higher levels of community resources while also facing higher levels of stressors. Mediation analysis, shown in Table 2, suggest that higher availability of utility services is related to higher achievement in urban settings across all ages in Peru and at age five in India. In addition, the greater availability of educational resources in urban settings compared to rural communities relates to higher vocabulary skills at age five. Notably, children in urban settings also face greater stressors compared to children in rural settings with consequences for their achievement skills. In particular, higher pollution problems in cities predicted lower math skills in Peru and lower receptive vocabulary in India, whereas violent crime related to lower achievement at adolescence ages in India. Together, these results suggest that policies aimed at improving disadvantaged children’s academic skills may differ across urban and rural areas.

Authors

• Laura Betancur, Iowa State University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Votruba-Drzal, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author