ArticlePloS one2015
Early Childhood Development and Schooling Attainment: Longitudinal Evidence from British, Finnish and Philippine Birth Cohorts.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Meta-analysis of epigenome-wide associations between DNA methylation at birth and childhood cognitive skills.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Early Child Development Assessments and Their Associations with Long-Term Academic and Economic Outcomes: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Early life risk factors of motor, cognitive and language development: a pooled analysis of studies from low/middle-income countries.BMJ open · 2019Pooled it
- Trial
- A holistic approach to promoting early child development: a cluster randomised trial of a group-based, multicomponent intervention in rural Bangladesh.BMJ global health · 2021Trial
- Prenatal nutrition, stimulation, and exposure to punishment are associated with early child motor, cognitive, language, and socioemotional development in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Child: care, health and development · 2018Trial
- Evaluation of a multicomponent child development intervention delivered through the government health system: a feasibility study.BMJ global health · 2025Observational
- Investigation of genetic determinants of cognitive change in later life.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Article
- Impact of scaling up prenatal nutrition interventions on human capital outcomes in low- and middle-income countries: a modeling analysis.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Article
- Higher maternal plasma β-cryptoxanthin concentration is associated with better cognitive and motor development in offspring at 2 years of age.European journal of nutrition · 2021Article
- Cross-cultural research on child development and maternal mental health in low-and middle-income countries.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2020Article
- The relationship between dietary micronutrients intake and cognition test performance among school-aged children in government-owned primary schools in Kumasi metropolis, Ghana.Food science & nutrition · 2019Article
- Growing and Learning When Consumption Is Seasonal: Long-Term Evidence From Tanzania.Demography · 2018Article
- The impact of health on economic and social outcomes in the United Kingdom: A scoping literature review.PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWhile recent literature has highlighted the importance of early childhood development for later life outcomes, comparatively little is known regarding the relative importance of early physical and cognitive development in predicting educational attainment cross-culturally.
methodsWe used prospective data from three birth cohorts: the Northern Finland Birth Cohort of 1986 (NFBC1986), the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS1970), and the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey of 1983 (CLHNS) to assess the association of height-for-age z-score (HAZ) and cognitive development measured prior to age 8 with schooling attainment. Multivariate linear regression models were used to estimate baseline and adjusted associations.
resultsBoth physical and cognitive development were highly predictive of adult educational attainment conditional on parental characteristics. The largest positive associations between physical development and schooling were found in the CLHNS (β = 0.53, 95%-CI: [0.32, 0.74]) with substantially smaller associations in the BCS1970 (β = 0.10, 95% CI [0.04, 0.16]) and the NFBC1986 (β = 0.06, 95% CI [-0.05, 0.16]). Strong associations between cognitive development and educational attainment were found for all three cohorts (NFBC1986: β = 0.22, 95%-CI: [0.12, 0.31], BCS1970: β = 0.58, 95%-CI: [0.52, 0.64], CLHNS: β = 1.08, 95%-CI: [0.88, 1.27]). Models jointly estimating educational associations of physical and cognitive development demonstrated weaker associations for physical development and minimal changes for cognitive development.
conclusionThe results indicate that although physical and cognitive early development are both important predictors of educational attainment, cognitive development appears to play a particularly important role. The large degree of heterogeneity in the observed effect sizes suggest that the importance of early life physical growth and cognitive development is highly dependent on socioeconomic and institutional contexts.
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