Pathways Between Family Socioeconomic Status and Early Childhood Development: Evidence From Andean Peru

Abstract

ABSTRACT Healthy and stimulating early life environments are key for children to develop to their full potential. Household socioeconomic status (SES) is a strong predictor of early child development (ECD). This study used a rich new dataset from Andean Peru to examine the pathways through which household SES shapes ECD. Drawing on frameworks from multiple disciplines, we consider early life health, family well‐being, and family investment as mediating pathways. Factors were assessed at two time points in a sample of 2702 parent‐child dyads (49.7% children female). Measurements were conducted at infancy (M child age = 5.02 months) and toddlerhood (M child age = 29.62 months). We estimated two structural equation models to examine the direct and indirect pathways between SES and ECD. Results show that while SES predict children's health and environments in infancy and toddlerhood, the links between mediators and ECD differ by developmental stage. During infancy, the pathways between SES and ECD are explained in part by birth weight, maternal social support, stimulation activities, and learning materials. During toddlerhood the association is explained in part by child nutritional status (height‐for‐age) and learning materials. All three pathways explained some, but not all, of the SES‐ECD gaps, with family investments emerging as the largest contributor. This highlights the complex and multidimensional nature of SES‐ECD gaps, indicates that additional pathways must be integrated, and informs a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms that may explain how socioeconomic well‐being influences early thriving in a low‐resource Peruvian setting, with implications for similar Majority World contexts.