Title: Disparities in Children's Health and Development: The Importance of Race / Ethnicity in the UK and US - ESRC/NIH Health Disparities
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Early childhood health and development, a term that encompasses physical health, socioemotional behaviour and cognitive ability, is important in two ways: first as a set of contemporary markers of how well children are doing compared with their peers, and second as predictors of future health and life chances. In the UK and US ethnic differences in early childhood health and development have been documented. Work in the US and the UK reveals the complexity of the ethnic patterning of childhood health and development. A range of socioeconomic, cultural and behavioral factors are involved, and these relate in complex ways to historical and contemporary features of US and UK society. In the UK and US work on older children and adolescents has revealed ethnic disparities in markers of chronic disease risk. And in adults rates of chronic diseases e.g. diabetes and cardiovascular disease vary across ethnic groups. But it is not clear when and how ethnic patterning of chronic disease risk emerges during the life course and whether this varies across ethnic groups and/or across national contexts. Comparative analyses of outcomes within countries allows for a more precise examination of the factors that might relate to ethnic disparities, because they provide greater heterogeneity in historical and contemporary factors and in the populations of interest. A comparison across countries further amplifies the power to do this, because of more fundamental variations in social systems, patterns of migration and both historical and contemporary ethnic/race relations. We expect to see similarities and differences in patterns of early childhood health and developmental outcomes across UK and US settings, e.g. asthma and wheezing illness rates among Black groups in the US and UK are comparable, while apparent cognitive test score disadvantage among Black versus White children in the US is much larger than that observed among Black versus White children in the UK. Moreover, given our understanding of the underlying causes of ethnic disparities we expect that pathways to observed variations will be different according to the outcome of interest e.g. obesity, asthma, cognitive test scores and socio-emotional difficulties. The goals of this project are to examine ethnic differences in early-mid childhood health and development in the UK and US, and assess explanations for observed patterns. To do this we will use data collected from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-B). We will analyse longitudinal data collected during the first four sweeps of the MCS and ECLS-B. Markers of child health and development to be considered include: physical health such as height, weight, growth, body mass index, and asthma and wheezing illness; socioemotional behaviours such as hyperactivity, peer and conduct problems; cognitive ability such as school readiness test scores, and early school attainments. The proposed work will make a unique contribution to research on ethnic disparities in early childhood health and development, and the findings will have strong implications in the US and UK across a range of policy settings. An introductory leaflet on the proposed research will be sent to all potential end-user organisations. Meetings and discussions will be sought with non-academic end-users to establish their research interests. During the project we will publish findings in peer reviewed scientific journals, present findings at national and international scientific meetings, and contribute to external briefings targeted at non-academic end-users. A plain English summary of our findings, addressing their policy implications will be made freely available to all end-users at the end of the project. The research will build on a successful body of ongoing work conducted by the applicant team (Kelly, Sacker, and Nazroo) in the field of ethnic health and educational disparities.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS;1.2 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC PROCESSES
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH;GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE;RESPIRATORY