Children need more than basic care from the day they are born. Good nutrition, a safe environment, and opportunities for stimulation are key for the brain to develop and reach its full potential. But what happens when families lack the resources to provide these conditions?
In poverty contexts, many children face multiple adversities from a very young age: family stress, less access to play materials, low-quality interactions, and negative parenting practices. These conditions affect their development and reinforce cycles of inequality.
In this blog post, we explore the findings of the study Desarrollo infantil en Uruguay: un análisis longitudinal de las brechas socioeconómicas y las prácticas de crianza (Child Development in Uruguay: A Longitudinal Analysis of Socioeconomic Gaps and Parenting Practices), developed by the Ministry of Social Development of Uruguay, Uruguay Crece Contigo, and the IDB, which analyzes how gaps in cognitive and socioemotional development evolve over time and the role parenting plays in this process.
A Unique Look at Child Development in Uruguay
Uruguay has an uncommon advantage in the region: high-quality longitudinal data that allow tracking the same children over time. The study is based on the Survey on Nutrition, Child Development and Health (ENDIS), a nationally representative sample of children between 0 and 3 years old.
The analysis focuses on the 2016 and 2019 rounds, when the children were between 2 and 6 and between 5 and 11 years old, respectively, and cognitive and socioemotional development measures were available. In total, 1,584 children with complete data in both rounds were included.
What Do the Data Show? Four Key Findings
The study reveals four features of child development based on socioeconomic level and parenting practices:
- More Behavioral Problems in Lower-Income Households
Children from lower socioeconomic households present more behavioral problems—especially at younger ages—both externalizing and internalizing. Externalizing behaviors, such as aggression or lack of attention, tend to decrease with age but never fully disappear. Internalizing behaviors, such as anxiety or withdrawal, show a stable gap, being almost as large at age 3 as at age 10.
- Cognitive Gaps Widen From Age Three
From age 3 to age 10, there are significant differences in cognitive skills between children from below-average and above-average income households. From age 3 onward, the differences widen considerably and persist over time, though they tend to narrow slightly toward the end of the analyzed period.
- Low Interaction With Adults at Home Is Linked to More Behavioral Problems
Children who have lower levels of interaction with adults at home in play activities—such as storytelling, singing, or playing—present more behavioral problems, both internalizing and externalizing. These differences increase with age and do not reverse over time.
- The More Interaction With Adults at Home, the Better the Cognitive Outcomes
Children who participate in more play activities with adults at home develop better cognitive performance, and this difference remains even at school age. The gaps according to adult interaction at home are larger than those by socioeconomic level, reinforcing the importance of promoting stimulating environments with affectionate and responsive interactions and learning opportunities through play from the earliest years.
What Do These Results Mean for Public Policy?
The findings of this study confirm that intervening from early childhood is key to reducing inequalities. Acting early makes it possible to take advantage of windows of brain development and brings higher returns on investment. How can public policy move forward?
- Integrate Cash Transfers With Policies to Strengthen Parenting Practices
Cash transfers—direct economic support that families receive, in some cases those with young children, to help cover basic expenses and improve their well-being—provide important relief for household finances. However, on their own they are not enough: they must be accompanied by strategies to improve parenting practices.
- Expand Family Support Programs
Home visiting programs for vulnerable households, such as the Programa de Acompañamiento Familiar (Family Support Program, PAF) of Uruguay Crece Contigo, have shown positive results by strengthening parenting practices, promoting child stimulation, and facilitating access to social services.
- Aim for Scale and Sustainability
Strengthening institutional coordination and ensuring stable financing that allows expanding quality early childhood services are necessary steps to make early childhood a priority.
- Scale Up Parenting Programs
For parenting programs to be effective at scale, they must be well implemented, achieve high family participation, and have well-trained teams.
Protecting Early Childhood Requires Acting on Time
This study, notable for tracking the same children for years, confirms that child development gaps exist, persist, and are related to the family environment. But it also offers a hopeful message: investing early, with a focus on parenting and stimulation, can change life trajectories and help break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Access the full study at this link.
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