A presentation by Christian Morabito as part of Impacts of Inequality on Children's Well-being panel discussion at the International Symposium on Cohort and Longitudinal Studies in Developing Contexts, UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, Florence, Italy 13-15 October 2014

1. Analysis of EEaarrllyy PPrreeddiiccttoorrss ooff
EEdduuccaattiioonnaall IInneeqquuaalliittiieess iinn tthhee
JJooiinntt CChhiilldd HHeeaalltthh PPrroojjeecctt CCoohhoorrtt
MMaauurriittiiuuss
UUnniicceeff 1133..1100..1144
CChhrriissttiiaann MMoorraabbiittoo –– GGhheenntt UUnniivveerrssiittyy

2. QQuueessttiioonnss ttoo bbee eexxaammiinneedd
11.. AArree iinneeqquuaalliittiieess iinn eeaarrllyy ccooggnniittiivvee ddeevveellooppmmeenntt
aassssoocciiaatteedd wwiitthh ppoosstt--nnaattaall ccoonnddiittiioonnss,, bbeeffoorree
eennttrraannccee iinnttoo pprriimmaarryy sscchhoooolliinngg??
22.. IIss tthhee aassssoocciiaattiioonn bbeettwweeeenn eeaarrllyy ffaaccttoorrss aanndd
ccooggnniittiivvee ddeevveellooppmmeenntt ssttiillll rreelleevvaanntt aatt aa llaatteerr aaggee,,
nnaammeellyy aatt tthhee eenndd ooff pprriimmaarryy sscchhooooll ccyyccllee,, wwiitthh
ddiiffffeerreenncceess aaccttuuaallllyy iinnccrreeaassiinngg oovveerr ttiimmee??
33.. AArree iinneeqquuaalliittiieess iinn sscchhooooll ppeerrffoorrmmaanncceess aassssoocciiaatteedd,,
iinn tthheeiirr ttuurrnn,, wwiitthh eeaarrllyy ffaaccttoorrss aanndd ccooggnniittiivvee
ddeevveellooppmmeenntt??

3. TThhee lliitteerraattuurree sshhoowwss tthhaatt ::
• Educational inequalities are substantially associated
with post-natal conditions, which are found before
the child enters the school system
• Work in neuro-sciences outline that the first three
years of life are a sensitive period for cognitive
development
• Inequalities tend to increase through age
• There are similar findings in developing countries
Crucial to observe inequalities’ dynamics throughout
age in a single dataset

4. TThhee JJCCHHPP
• The Child Health Project analyzes a cohort of 1,795 children
born in 1969-70 in two large towns of Mauritius. Data have
been collected since 1972 by investigators and teachers at
ages 3, 8, 11, 17, 23, 28, 35 and 40, on a number of risk
factors
• The aim was to analyze predictors of psychopathologies at
an early age, such as socio-economic and demographic
family status, along with malnutrition, cognitive
development and psychophysiological status

5. TThhee JJCCHHPP
• Principal Investigators:
Fini Schulsinger – University of Copenhagen
Sarnoff Mednick – University of Southern California
Peter Venables – University of York
Adrian Raine PI – University of Pennsylvania
Susan Elizabeth Luczak – University of Southern California
- Cyril Dalais – National Director Mauritius
• Partners:
MoE, MoH, Medical Research Centre, Wellcome Trust,
WHO, Danish State Dep., DANIDA, NIH

6. Independent Variables ccoolllleecctteedd iinn 11997722 ((SSuubbjjeeccttss aaggee 33))
Type Description
Sex, Ethnicity, Residence
SES of Parents N. years of schooling
Employment level
Family Composition and Structure Child’s birth and siblings’ order and sibling’s sex
Person who looks after the child at home
Child both parents, single, orphan etc.
Housing Conditions Appearance of the house
N. of rooms
N. of people per room
Child Nutrition & Health
Mother’s Health
Malnutrition (PEM)
Anaemia (haemoglobin)
Serious illness
Serious illness during pregnancy
Problems during delivery
Child Physical and Intellectual Development
Mother’s health conditions
Child Personality Traits Temperament during cognitive tests: cries, reaction
to testing, sociability, activity level, sleeping during
testing, and hygiene – condition of hands

7. Dependent Variables ffoorr CCooggnniittiivvee DDeevveellooppmmeenntt aanndd
SScchhooooll PPeerrffoorrmmaanncceess
• Cognitive development has been assessed at age 3 using 6
subtests of the ‘Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Preschool
Version’, and at age 11 by 7 subtests of the ‘Wechsler
Intelligence Scale for Children’. Raw scores of subscales for
both tests were normalized and standardized. The two tests
utilized are comparable.
• The Certificate of Primary Education is composed of four
subjects: English, French, Mathematics and Environmental
Studies. The Total CPE score ranks from 0 to 50 with 0
grade F (failure), 10 grade E, 20 grade D, 30 grade C, 40
grade B, 50 grade A.

8. QQ11.. PPrreeddiiccttoorrss ooff ccooggnniittiivvee ddeevv.. ((aaggee 33))
• Differences in cognitive development at age 3 are
significantly associated with a number of factors at
same age. Overall effect, F(25,1217)=7.192; p<.001;
ηρ^2=.13
• Significant factors leading to poor cognitive:
Fathers having completed only primary education, not
employed or with low skilled jobs; malnutrition; poor
sociability and male sex
• Non significant factors are:
Mother’s education, child and mother health, family
structures, home status, housing.

14. QQ22 PPrreeddiiccttoorrss aatt aaggee 33 ooff ccooggnniittiivvee
ddeevveellooppmmeenntt aatt aaggee 1111
• Association between early predictors and cognitive
development is also found at age 11, measured by the
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC).
Effect size is actually larger than at age 3,
F(29,840)=10.684; p<.001; ηρ^2=.27
• Poor performance is associated with:
Fathers having completed only primary education, not
employed or with low skilled jobs; malnutrition; sociability
and sleeping during testing;
Sex (favoring boys); and mother’s education and work is
now significant.

16. CCooggnniittiivvee lleevveell iinnccrreeaasseedd ffrroomm aaggee 33 ttoo aaggee 1111
• We observed that differences between cognitive
development at age 3 and 11 are positive and are
significantly associated with socio-economic status
of parents (father and mother’s education and
work);
• This confirms findings of similar studies conducted
in developing countries, and underlines that
inequalities in cognitive development over time are
associated with poor parental status.

21. QQ33 aaggee 33 pprreeddiiccttoorrss ooff CCPPEE aaggee 1111
• Findings highlight an overall significant association
between CPE results, and early factors measured at age
3, with large effects, F(35,614)=9.788; p<.001;
ηρ^2=.27
• Poorer performance is significantly associated with:
Fathers and mother’s having completed only primary
education, not employed or with low skilled jobs; malnutrition;
sociability and sleeping during testing;
• It is not associated with :
Sex, ethnicity, housing (n. of people per room)

22. Significant correlation between WISC test and Certificate ooff PPrriimmaarryy
EEdduuccaattiioonn mmeeaassuurreedd aatt aaggee 1111 wwiitthh llaarrggee eeffffeeccttss
((rr==..6655,, NN==11009900,, pp<<000011))..

23. DDiissccuussssiioonn
• Findings mostly corroborate outcomes of studies conducted
in developed countries and previous analyses carried out on
the JCHP cohort. Divergences may be ascribed to the
dissimilarity of the type of tests used and the data collected,
and/or simply the specificity of the Mauritius context;
• Although there is a certain correspondence in the
inequality’s dynamics between cognitive development tests
and national examination scores - and a strong association
is found between the two at age 11 – association cannot
establish a causality path from early factors to school
performance through cognitive development trends.

24. FFuurrtthheerr qquueessttiioonnss??
Strengthen the evidence that inequalities arise already in early
years, but leave the debate open about what intervention might
actually better tackle educational disadvantage.:
- Possibly concentrate efforts in early years – that is before schooling -
on both education and parents’ socio-economic conditions?
PREVENSION
- Possibly change the structure of the schooling which at present
undermines the capacity of education systems to accommodate
children from poor families? RECOVERY

25. TThhaannkk YYoouu!!