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Published on: September 19, 2019
Early Child Development, Residential Crowding, and Commute Time in 8 US States, 2010-2017
Eryn Piper Block1, Frederick J Zimmerman1, Efren Aguilar1
1Eryn Piper Block, Frederick J. Zimmerman, and Neal Halfon are with the Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Efren Aguilar, Lisa Stanley, and Neal Halfon are with the Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities, Department of Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA.
Objectives:
To examine relationships of residential crowding and commute time with early child development.
Methods:
We used the Early Development Instrument (EDI), a teacher-reported, population-health measure of child development. The sample included child-level observations spanning 8 US states from 2010 to 2017 (n = 185 012), aggregated to the census tract (n= 2793), stratified by percentage of households in poverty. To test the association of commute times, crowding, and child development, we tested overall readiness and 5 EDI domains by using adjusted census tract-level multivariate regression with fixed effects.
Results:
In the full sample, a 1-standard-deviation increase in crowding was associated with 0.064- and 0.084-point decreases in mean score for cognitive development and communication skills, respectively. For the high-poverty subsample, a 1-standard deviation increase in commute time was associated with 0.081- and 0.066-point decreases in social competence and emotional maturity.
Conclusions:
In neighborhoods with increased crowding or commute time, early child development suffers.
Policy Implications:
This study suggests a potential relationship between the changing urban landscape and child health. Children would benefit from more multisector collaboration between urban planning and public health.
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