Parents' Social Integration and Child Development: Impact of the Parents' Affiliations, Neighborhood Relation, and Sociability

• In Event: Analyses on Nonformal and Informal Learning Environments in Educational Panel Studies

Abstract

The effects of parents' social integration on the child's development has mainly been studied in the context of migrating families (Zeroulou, 1988 ; Gidley & Jayaweera, 2010). It has thus been demonstrated that parents' participation in the local social life or in some forms of activism had a positive effect on the child's development as well as on their school success. We would like to test the same hypotheses in a more general level and since the very first months of the child's life, by double-crossing the theoretical notions acquis of cultural psychology (Bruner, 2000) with those of moral socialization, in the way that they are apprehended within the context of French sociology (Lignier, Lomba, Rénahy, 2012; Pagis, 2014). Do Parents' Social abilities and the degree of their social relations have an effect on the development of the child's social abilities? Or, on the contrary, the multiplication of parents' activities has a negative effect on the stability and the quality of care and education of young children? In order to test this hypothesis, we have take into account the social status of the parents, their professional activity and the type of daycare of the child (Burchinal et al., 2000, Marcos & al., 2000 ; Florin, 1998). Other factors can be equally taken into account, like gender and fraternity rank.
This presentation will be based on the results of the ELFE cohort (Etude Longitudinale Française depuis l’Enfance). Being the first French cohort on general population since birth, this survey started in 2011 and concerns more than 18.000 children. During the first year, the fathers and mothers of the children have been questioned at birth, at two months and at the age of one year. The questionnaires permit to measure the development of the child in many dimensions, with the help of standardized modules coming from the « Child Development Inventory » (whose scales concern psychomotor development, socialization, language, etc.).
"Many questions focus on parents’ professional activities, their care practices, as well as on their affiliations, their sociability and their representations of neighborhood." The statistical analysis will permit to measure the correlations between all these different variables, by proceeding by logistic regressions and by geometric analysis of the data. In addition to these quantitative data, in order to illustrate and prolong the analysis, we will also use a qualitative longitudinal study conducted by observations and interviews.

Authors

• Bertrand Geay, University of Picardie

• Pierig Humeau, GRESCO - FRANCE