Abstract
Background
Social, emotional and behavioural development in early to middle childhood impact upon many outcomes in future life and are influenced by home, neighbourhood and school environments. We used linked data to investigate differences between areas in Glasgow City in level of difficulties in pre-school age children, after consideration of demographics, including area-level deprivation.
Methods
Pre-school education staff completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) on all children progressing to school from a local authority or partnership (local authority-funded private) pre-school in Glasgow City between 2010 and 2012. These data were linked to individual (age, gender) and area-level (deprivation) demographics from the City Council Education Services Department. Statistical models were fitted to the SDQ scores, adjusting for age, gender, area deprivation, year of school entry, pre-school establishment attended and electoral ward of residence. Correlation between neighbouring wards was incorporated to allow for clustering of scores.
Results
Boys and those living in more deprived areas had higher levels of difficulties. Children aged 5.0–5.5 years had fewest difficulties, while the oldest and youngest children had similar levels of difficulties. There were no significant secular trends by year of school entry. There remained differences among areas after adjusting for these variables, with children living in some areas having fewer difficulties than would be expected based on their socio-demographic characteristics.
Conclusions
There remained differences in children's levels of difficulties between areas after adjusting for age, gender, area deprivation and year of school entry. Children in some very deprived areas had fewer difficulties than might be expected, while those in relatively affluent areas had more difficulties than expected based on their deprivation level. There may be other, unmeasured, individual- and area-level reasons for children's level of difficulties, and these require further exploration.
Social, emotional and behavioural development in early to middle childhood impact upon many outcomes in future life and are influenced by home, neighbourhood and school environments. We used linked data to investigate differences between areas in Glasgow City in level of difficulties in pre-school age children, after consideration of demographics, including area-level deprivation.
Methods
Pre-school education staff completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) on all children progressing to school from a local authority or partnership (local authority-funded private) pre-school in Glasgow City between 2010 and 2012. These data were linked to individual (age, gender) and area-level (deprivation) demographics from the City Council Education Services Department. Statistical models were fitted to the SDQ scores, adjusting for age, gender, area deprivation, year of school entry, pre-school establishment attended and electoral ward of residence. Correlation between neighbouring wards was incorporated to allow for clustering of scores.
Results
Boys and those living in more deprived areas had higher levels of difficulties. Children aged 5.0–5.5 years had fewest difficulties, while the oldest and youngest children had similar levels of difficulties. There were no significant secular trends by year of school entry. There remained differences among areas after adjusting for these variables, with children living in some areas having fewer difficulties than would be expected based on their socio-demographic characteristics.
Conclusions
There remained differences in children's levels of difficulties between areas after adjusting for age, gender, area deprivation and year of school entry. Children in some very deprived areas had fewer difficulties than might be expected, while those in relatively affluent areas had more difficulties than expected based on their deprivation level. There may be other, unmeasured, individual- and area-level reasons for children's level of difficulties, and these require further exploration.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 853-864 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Child: Care, Health and Development |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 24 Feb 2015 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funded by The Scottish GovernmentAcknowledgements
First and foremost, the authors would like to thank the schools,parents and staff who participated in the data collection process.The authors would also like to thank Kim Jones and Elsa Ekevell for their help with inputting and collating the data. We would also like to thank Glasgow City Council Education Services and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for their support and help with data collection
Keywords
- children
- child development
- poverty
- social and behavioural difficulties
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Mapping area variability in social and behavioural difficulties among Glasgow pre-schoolers: linkage of a survey of pre-school staff with routine monitoring data'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Profiles
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Lucy Thompson
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Applied Health Sciences - Senior Research Fellow
- Institute of Applied Health Sciences
Person: Academic Related - Research
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Philip Wilson
- School of Medicine, Medical Sciences & Nutrition, Applied Health Sciences - Emeritus Professor
Person: Honorary