Description:
Several studies published over the past few years have shown that a considerable numberof young children in Quebec risk having their educational pathways compromised by insufficient behavioural or cognitive maturity. This study by Christa Japel allows us to gain more knowledge about the conditions in which these children grow up and better understand the links between these and children's later adaptation, that is, their cognitive performance and behaviour when they reach pre-kindergarten and kindergarten age. The author used the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD) to trace a detailed portrait of a cohort of children born in 1997 and 1998.
Findings include:
• In each data collection, nearly one-quarter of the children surveyed by the QLSCD live with four or more risk factors.
• It is the number of risk factors, rather than their quality, that is associated with the child's behavioural and cognitive trajectory, even if certain factors, such as family income, mother's education and the child's health at the age of five months, have particularly significant weight with respect to the child's later adaptation.
• All children benefit from prolonged attendance at a child care service, at least in the cognitive domain. However, the more a child is exposed to a life context with multiple risks, the less likely he or she is to have attended such a service.
An English version of the study will be available this fall.