Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 14, 2026

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG
08:20

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG

Published on: May 3, 2017

Endowments and parental investments in infancy and early childhood

Ashlesha Datar1, M Rebecca Kilburn, David S Loughran

  • 1RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA. datar@rand.org

Demography
|April 2, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Parents tend to reinforce birth weight differences, not compensate for them. Normal-birthweight children receive more early childhood investments, and this effect increases with more low-birthweight siblings.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Family Economics
  • Child Development

Background:

  • Parental investment decisions significantly shape child development outcomes.
  • Understanding how parental resources are allocated among siblings is crucial for equity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether parents reinforce or compensate for initial child endowments, specifically birth weight.
  • To analyze the impact of birth weight disparities on parental investments in early childhood.

Main Methods:

  • Econometric analysis of sibling birth weight differences.
  • Estimation of parental investments including breast-feeding, well-baby visits, immunizations, and preschool attendance.

Main Results:

  • Normal-birthweight children are 5%-11% more likely to receive parental investments than low-birthweight siblings.
  • The presence of additional low-birthweight siblings amplifies investments in normal-birthweight children for certain services.

Conclusions:

  • Parental investments in early childhood appear to reinforce, rather than compensate for, initial endowment differences.
  • Findings suggest potential long-term implications for child development and intergenerational equity.

More Related Videos

Limited Bedding and Nesting as a Model for Early-Life Adversity in Mice04:20

Limited Bedding and Nesting as a Model for Early-Life Adversity in Mice

Published on: July 12, 2024

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm06:35

Examining Recall Memory in Infancy and Early Childhood Using the Elicited Imitation Paradigm

Published on: April 28, 2016

Related Concept Videos

Parental Care00:55

Parental Care

Many animals exhibit parental care behavior, including feeding, grooming, and protecting young offspring. Parental care is universal in mammals and birds, which often have young that are born relatively helpless. Several species of insects and fish, as well as some amphibians, also care for their young.
Relationship with Parents: Attachment01:28

Relationship with Parents: Attachment

Parent-child interactions lay the foundation for how we understand relationships throughout life. These interactions are not uniform across families; instead, they are shaped by a range of environmental, emotional, and behavioral factors unique to each caregiver-child dynamic. Social psychologists study these early relationships to understand how patterns formed in infancy influence social functioning and interpersonal behavior in adulthood.Attachment Theory and Early Relational ModelsJohn...
Environmental Influences on Intelligence01:29

Environmental Influences on Intelligence

Despite the strong genetic influence on traits like intelligence, environmental factors significantly shape outcomes. For example, while over 90% of height variation is due to genetic differences, environmental factors such as nutrition also have a notable impact. Similarly, for intelligence, changes in a child's surroundings can significantly alter their IQ. Research shows that enriched environments boost children's academic success and help them develop key cognitive skills. Children from...
The Nativist Approach01:21

The Nativist Approach

The nativist approach to infant cognitive development proposes that infants are born with inherent knowledge structures that allow them to interpret the world almost immediately. This perspective contrasts with earlier developmental theories, such as those proposed by Jean Piaget, which emphasized a more gradual acquisition of cognitive abilities through interaction with the environment. One key concept in this approach is object permanence — the understanding that objects continue to exist...
Socioemotional Development during Infancy01:30

Socioemotional Development during Infancy

Socio-emotional development in infancy is primarily shaped by early emotional responses and social connections, with temperament playing a central role. Temperament refers to the consistent patterns in an individual's emotional and behavioral responses, observable even in infancy. By examining temperament, researchers can better understand an infant's unique ways of interacting with the world, influencing subsequent personality and socio-emotional growth.
Primary Temperament Types
Stella Chess...
Imprinting01:22

Imprinting

Behavioral imprinting is observed in some newborn animals and occurs when they develop strong and specific attachments to another animal (usually a parent) following brief, early-life exposures. Offspring imprint onto parents within a brief period after birth or hatching; this time window is called the critical period. Once imprinting occurs, the bond established between the parents and their offspring is usually long-lasting.