Income Changes and Cognitive Stimulation in Young Children's Home Learning Environments. JCPR Working Paper.

Early home learning environments are the result of interactions between the developing children and the opportunity structures provided by their families. Income is one of several resources that affect the cognitive stimulation that children experience. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (N = 2,174) this study examines the influence of household income on cognitive stimulation during the transition to school (aged 3-4 years to 7-8 years). Cross-sectional and longitudinal fixed effects regressions are estimated to examine income's effect. Household income was positively related to the level of cognitive stimulation in children's home environments across both sets of analyses. Home environments of children in low-income households were particularly sensitive to income changes over time. The implications of these results for programs and policies that reduce disparities in school readiness are discussed. Key Words: cognitive development, home, home environment, income, preschool. Not all children starting school are equally ready to learn (U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics, 2001). Some have developed the basic language, reading, and math skills that are important to early success in school, whereas others have not. Several environmental characteristics of families place children at risk of starting school in a position of relative disadvantage. These include living in a family with limited economic resources, having parents with low levels of education, or being raised by a single parent (U.S. Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics). Regardless of their source, children's developmental differences at school entry are of serious concern to parents, educators, and policymakers alike. These disparities persist and are exacerbated in the early years of school (Entwisle & Alexander, 1999). Theoretical insights into sources of developmental differences come from bioecological and transactional models of child development, which describe child development as the result of reciprocal interactions between children and the multiple environments in which they are embedded (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994; Sameroff, 1994). During early childhood, proximal processes in children's home environments are central to development. The content of the proximal processes children experience is the product of their biological or genetic endowments and the opportunity structures presented by children's social and physical environments. Children's genetic predispositions influence their attention, their actions, and the responses they elicit from their environment. In contrast, the opportunity structures available in children's most immediate environment determine which inherent predispositions are realized. Combined, these interactions between children and their opportunity structures influence children's developmental trajectories (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci; Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998). Although children actively manipulate aspects of their environment, parents are particularly central in shaping young children's environments because they guide children's learning and engagement in activities. Examples of key parental influences on early learning include reading to children; helping them learn the alphabet, numbers, and letters; and taking children on outings or to the library. These proximal processes are linked to better cognitive and literacy skills at school entry (Baharudin & Luster, 1998; Dubow & Ippolito, 1994; Parker, Boak, Griffin, Ripple, & Peay, 1999; Smith, Brooks-Gunn, & Klebanov, 1997). Over the years, research has begun to identify resources in family systems that are central to opportunity structures related to cognitive stimulation. A key resource is the level of economic resources a family possesses. The influence of economic resources, defined here as family income, on learning opportunities in children's home environments is both direct and indirect. …