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Children’s Development in Kindergarten: A Multilevel, Population-Based Analysis of ESL and Gender Effects on Socioeconomic Gradients

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Abstract

Socioeconomic gradients for five school readiness domains were examined in multilevel analyses in relation to English-as-a-Second-Language status (comparing English-, Punjabi-, and Cantonese-speaking children) and gender, drawing from a population-based sample (n = 40,722) from British Columbia, Canada. School readiness ratings were obtained from the teacher-administered Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus and Offord (Canadian journal of behavioural science 39: 1–22, 2007) and linked to enumeration area (6-digit postal code) level socioeconomic status census data. The findings show that (i) girls obtain consistently higher ratings on all developmental domains of the EDI than boys, (ii) the socioeconomic gradient for Punjabi-speaking children is significantly flatter than for English- and Cantonese-speaking children, and (iii) English-, Punjabi-, and Cantonese-speaking children obtain similar ratings on all developmental domains, except communication skills (in English), once analyses control for socioeconomic status. The findings are discussed with regard to cultural and ecological theories of development, and recommendations for the design and analyses of future research are provided.

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Notes

  1. In British Columbia, Canada, Kindergarten is compulsory at age five, and part of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) public school system.

  2. Kohen et al. (2002) examined the interactions between neighborhood and family level socioeconomic status; however, the study did not examine interactions between socioeconomic status and demographic child or family characteristics, such as gender, or ethno-cultural background.

  3. The overall sample also included 604 children with Mandarin as their first language, as well as several hundred children who speak Hindi, Urdu, or other languages spoken in India. These were not included in our analyses, because the intent was to compare patterns of results according to the language background of the children, and not according to their (or their parents’) countries of origin (e.g., China, India).

  4. In the literature, SES is commonly measured by parental income, education, or occupational status (or any combination thereof). Please see the discussion for some pertaining theoretical comments.

  5. A census family often coincides with a household; but in some cases, a household may contain multiple census families.

  6. The mean income for the ESL children’s families (about 19,500 Canadian dollar) is almost one standard deviation lower than the mean income for the English language group children’s families (about 24,000 Canadian dollar).

  7. The heteroscedasticity can be seen in Figure 7.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Early Learning Partnership, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Martin Guhn & Clyde Hertzman

  2. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Anne M. Gadermann & Bruno D. Zumbo

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  1. Martin Guhn
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  2. Anne M. Gadermann
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  3. Clyde Hertzman
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  4. Bruno D. Zumbo
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Correspondence to Martin Guhn.

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Guhn, M., Gadermann, A.M., Hertzman, C. et al. Children’s Development in Kindergarten: A Multilevel, Population-Based Analysis of ESL and Gender Effects on Socioeconomic Gradients. Child Ind Res 3, 183–203 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-009-9053-7

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