Benefits of High Quality Home Environments and Early Childhood Educational Programs for Children with the History of Maltreatment

Background and Purpose

Over the last few decades, there has been increasing interest in examining the effects of early childhood poverty on cognitive and socio-emotional development of children and their future outcomes. Scholars agree that being born in poor households early in life significantly limit children’s development (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997; Kagan, 2009; Magnuson, 2013). The effects of maltreatment on children’s development are also well established. Children with a history of maltreatment have worse developmental outcomes, specifically with regards to cognitive and social-emotional development as compared to their non-maltreated peers (Dinehart et al., 2012; Kovan et al., 2014). It is also well established that maltreatment and poverty are often closely related (Coulton et al., 1995; Drake & Pandey, 1995) and that children from low-income families have higher odds of being involved in the child welfare system (CWS) (Coulton et al., 1995; Jonson-Reid et al., 2009). Similar to poverty, exposure to maltreatment has an adverse impact on children’s development. Children who experience maltreatment early in life demonstrate a wide range of behavioral problems and noticeable delays in cognitive growth (Cicchetti, 2016; Yoon et al., 2017).

Importantly, extensive research has established that factors such as Early Childhood Education (ECE) programs and stimulating and supportive home environments play a protective role in mediating the effect of negative early childhood experiences (Heckman, 201; Hernandez-Alava & Popli, 2017). Yet, the effects of ECE and the quality of home environments for children experiencing the coexistence of child maltreatment and poverty are still understudied. To fill this gap the current study used the data from the National Survey of Children and Adolescents (NSCAW II) and examined the effects ECE participation and home environments on the cognitive outcomes of child welfare involved children from low-income families.

Methods and Results

Structural equation modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect pathways from family income to16-47 months children’s (N=342) early cognitive development and the role of ECE and the quality of home environments in mediating the effects of poverty on children’s outcomes.

The results showed that the direct path from poverty to children’s cognitive development was not significant although the negative effect of poverty on ECE attendance showed significant results (β = -.172, p < .001). There was no mediating effect of ECE attendance on children’s cognitive outcomes (β = .062, p > .05); however, the effect of poverty on children’s home environments (β = -.015, p >.001) and the path from home environment to children’s early cognitive development (β =.012, p >.001) were both significant.

Conclusion and Implications

The findings of the study reiterate the importance of early home interventions that target the improvement of the home environment and the enhancement of low-income mother’s awareness of the importance of the home environment for children’s cognitive development. It is essential that child welfare professionals direct their efforts on the continuous assessment of the needs of at-risk families and ensure the delivery of in-home or community-based parent skill improvement programs.