Bong Joo LeeSeoul National University

The Relationship betweenChildren’s Development and

Socioeconomic Factors in Korea

• In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in children’s policy in Korea. – Shifting focus: from ‘protection’ to ‘development’

• However, lack of basic knowledge on the status of child development has been a factor hindering implementation of concrete polices and programs to promote child development in Korea.

• Purpose of this study:– To examine the level of development of Korean children

in 4 domains: language, cognition, psychosocial behav-iors, and physical health

– To examine the effects of family’s socioeconomic and social capital factors on children’s development

Introduction

• Family Income– Mcloyd, 1990; Duncan, Brooks-Gunn & Klebanov, 1994; Ryu & Choi, 2003;

Kim, 2008– Language development: Lee & Kawk, 2008– Cognitive development: McCulloch & Joshi, 2000– And many other studies in and out of Korea

• Family Structure– Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Runyan et al., 1998

• Family Process– Interaction patterns between parent and child: Chang, 1987, 1995;

Cochran-Smith, 1984; Goldfield & Snow, 1984– Parent’s child rearing attitude: Guerin, Gottfried & Thomas, 1997;

Wasserman et al., 1990 – Parent’s self efficacy: Woo & Lee, 1994; Lee & Han, 2004; Coleman & Kar-

raker, 1998• Community characteristics

– Kim, 2008; Boisjoly, Duncan & Hofferth, 1995; Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Garbarino & Sherman, 1980

Previous Studies: Factors affecting children’s development

• ‘Korea Children and Youth Survey, 2009’– Nationally representive sample of 6,922 chil-

dren (0-18 years old) and their parents– Household survey– 0-8 years old: responses from the parents on

child development and family characteristics– 9-18 years old: child survey and parent survey

Data

• Cognitive development– 0-8 years old: scales developed to measure basic cognitive

skills, mathematical thinking ability, scientific thinking abil-ity, and social thinking ability by specific age groups

– 9-18 years old: self reported school achievement level• Language development

– 0-8 years old: scales to measure speaking, reading, writing, and social communication ability by specific age groups

• Psychosocial development– K-CBCL child behavior problem scale– Internalizing and Externalizing problem behaviors

• Physical health– Self-reported health status(by parents and children)– Being hospitalized

Key Variables: Developmental Domains

• Family’s socioeconomic charactersitics– Family income– Level of parent’s education– Owned house

• Within family social capital– Family structure– Parent’s self efficacy– Level of parent-child communication openness– Time (playing and talking) spent with parents

• Outside family social capital: Community character-istics– Neighborhood environment: sense of belonging, informal

social control, social cohesiveness– Social support: economic, emotional, life, information

Key Variables:Socioeconomic and Social Capital Factors

Characteristics of the sampleVariables # %

GenderMale 3,035 50.8

Female 2.937 49.2

Family StructureBoth Parents 5,175 74.8

Not Both Parents 1,748 25.2

Age

0-2 1,118 16.1

3-5 1,151 16.6

6-8 1,188 17.2

9-11 1,160 16.8

12-18 2,306 33.3

Family Income

Below Poverty Level

1,768 25.5

From P.L. to 2 x P.L.

2,048 29.6

Over 2 x P.L. 3,105 44.9

RegionCity 6,366 92.0

Rural 557 8.0

Characteristics by income: 0-8 years old

  

Family Income

< P. L. P.L. to 2 x P.L. 2 x P.L. <

0-8 Years Old (N) 769 1,151 1,537

Development

Cognitive .83(.67) .94(.71) .83(.37)Language .73(.37) .77(.37) .94(.70)

PsySocio-Internaliz-ing 4.92(1.45) 4.87(1.35) 4.88(1.31)

PsySocio-Externaliz-ing 4.10(1.33) 4.19(1.32) 4.17(1.24)

Self-reported health 3.20(.62) 3.34(.60) 3.42(.55)

Hospitalized .16(.37) .15(.36) .13(.33)

SocioeconomicCharacteristics

Parent college edu-cated .13(.33) .30(.46) .55(.49)

Owned house .13(.34) .28(.45) .49(.50)

Within FamilySocial Capital

Parent efficacy 2.88(.53) 3.00(.47) 3.02(.42)Open communica-

tion 2.96(.73) 2.96(.68) 3.00(.68)Time spent .55(.49) .59(.49) .56(.49)

CommunityEnvironment .47(.23) .48(.22) .48(.22)

Social Support 1.74(.66) 1.92(.62) 1.98(.60)

Characteristics by income: 9-18 years old

  

Family Income

< P. L. P.L. to 2 x P.L. 2 x P.L. <

9-18 Years Old (N) 999 897 1,568

Development

Cognitive(School Achieve-

ment)2.44(1.88) 2.74(2.88) 2.90(2.20)

PsySocio-Internaliz-ing 4.66(1.07) 4.58(1.02) 4.42(.98)

PsySocio-Externaliz-ing 4.32(.75) 4.30(.76) 4.16(.72)

Self-reported health 3.07(.65) 3.24(.59) 3.30(.53)

Hospitalized .11(.31) .08(.26) .04(.19)

SocioeconomicCharacteristics

Parent college edu-cated .08(.27) .15(.36) .38(.48)

Owned house .11(.31) .33(.47) .69(.46)

Within FamilySocial Capital

Parent efficacy 2.79(.58) 2.90(.50) 3.01(.45)Open communica-

tion 2.96(.69) 3.00(.65) 3.03(.63)Time spent .26(.44) .26(.44) .32(.46)

CommunityEnvironment .46(.22) .49(.22) .51(.22)

Social Support 1.59(.58) 1.68(.57) 1.83(.57)

Multivariate analyses:factors affecting child development

  Cognitive Lang. Psychosocial Health

  0-8 9-18 0-8 0-8Internal

0-8Exter-

nal

9-18Internal

9-18External

0-8Reported

0-8Hospi-

tal

9-18Reported

9-18Hospital

Constant .10 2.70** -.01 5.76***4.58**

*4.14* 4.46*** 2.63** .27** 2.82** .21***

Male .01 .00 .03* .06 -.12 .05 -.04 .01 -.00 -.02 -.02*

City -.02 -.02 .02 .18* .10 .04 -.01 -.07 -.00 .00 -.02

Age .11*** -.02 .10*** .08*** .23** .03*** .01 -.01*** -.03** -.01* -.00

Poverty -.08* -.34* -.09** .04 -.09 .17* .12* -.13*** .02 -.15*** .05*

2 x P.L. .03 -.12 -.05** -.03 .04 .12* .10** -.08 .00 .00 .02

Parent College .08* .12 .04** .12 .07 .01 -.03 .04 -.05* -.04 -.01

House Owned -.04 .05 -.02 -.05 -.03 -.03 -.01 .05 -.02 .05 -.01

Both Parent .04 .05 .06* .11 .14 .08 .02 .10* -.03 .05 -.00

Parent Efficacy .01 .03 .03 -.39*** -.34*** -.07 -.09* .21** .01 .14*** -.04**

Open Comm. .13*** .07 .09*** -.07 -.01 -.02 -.02 .02 .01 .02 .02

Time Spent .02 .04 .04** -.11* -.05 -.07 -.03 .07** .02 .02 -.00

Environment.0

6.10 .06 -.09 -.01 -.14 -.08 -.06 -.05 .13** -.00

Social Support -.01 -.03 .00 -.03 -.03 .03 .02 .02 .01 .01 -.01

• Poverty is a major risk factor for low level of development– All ages:

• Low cognitive development• Low level of health

– 0-8 years: Low language development– 9-18 years: Increased internalizing and exter-

nalizing problem behaviors• Parent’s education level matters

– 0-8 years: higher education better cognitive and language developments

Key Findings

• Family structure matters too– 0-8 years: both parent better language development and

health• Parent’s self-efficacy is important

– Al l ages: child’s better psychosocial behaviors– All ages: better health

• Open communication style is important for cognitive and language developments for younger children

• For younger children: more time spent with parents pre-dicts– Better language development– Less internalizing problem behaviors– Better health

• Community environment is important for older children’s health

• Need for preventive child development support services and programs targeted for children in poverty

• Strengthening family support programs in-cluding child rearing education programs for parents– Importance of communication with children– Spend more time with children– Self-efficacy of parents

Implications for Policy