Learning Gap During COVID-19 Pandemic Among Preschool Children in Singapore

• In Event: Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 16. Lifecourse Mobility

Abstract

Recent review papers have raised concerns about the lack of evidence directly evaluating learning inequalities among preschool children and the mediating mechanisms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing this research gap, this study investigates the mechanisms through which the pandemic has widened learning gaps among young children from different socioeconomic backgrounds in a non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic) country. Drawing on data collected before and during the pandemic from a nationally representative sample of children (ages 3 to 9, N = 2,595, 51% boys, 67% Chinese) in the Singapore Longitudinal Early Development Study (SG-LEADS), this study reveals significant SES disparities in preschool and early school year children's achievement scores. Lower-SES families were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, exacerbating pre-existing inequalities. An analytic framework is developed based on family stress, investment and parenting theories. We demonstrate the mediating mechanisms as the differential impact of COVID-19 on family's financial strain, emotional stress, family material and time investments, and parental monitoring of children’s daily activities. These resource and family dynamic disparities contributed to widening achievement gaps in children’s verbal and mathematics test scores across socioeconomic spectrums. In addition, KHB mediation analyses further revealed that family material investment was the strongest predictor related to the SES achievement gap, followed by economic strain and time investment. Parental monitoring contributed to a smaller, though significant, portion of the family SES achievement gap in both tests. The findings highlight the long-term implications of these early disparities, including the perpetuation of intergenerational (dis)advantages. This study makes a valuable contribution to the limited research on learning inequality during early childhood in the context of the pandemic. Comparative studies across diverse socioeconomic and cultural settings provides deeper insights into universal versus context-specific mechanisms shaping early learning inequality.

Authors

• Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, National University of Singapore

• Xuejiao Chen, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research