Towards a more holistic understanding of inequalities in childhood: A multi-context approach to parental education and child development

Socioeconomic inequality is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Socioeconomic inequality not only conditions unequal access to opportunities but also creates barriers that hinder children from reaching their full developmental potential. This results in disparities in children’s developmental trajectories. Yet, every child has the right to access equal opportunities to develop skills and competences that enable them to fulfill their potential and to foster overall well-being. Therefore, it is critical to identify and address socioeconomic inequalities in multiple contexts that may lead to differences in developmental trajectories early on. While decades of research have examined associations between socioeconomic status (SES) and a wide range of outcomes, our understanding of the longitudinal contributions of SES at both the household and school levels to child development throughout the elementary school period remains incomplete. The majority of the previous research employed cross-sectional designs, single-level models and/or focused on older children and academic achievement outcomes. Therefore, using a multi-context and a longitudinal approach, the overall aim of the present doctoral thesis was to provide a more holistic understanding of how household- and school-level socioeconomic status (SES) contribute to elementary school children’s development. To do this, the present thesis specifically focused on parental education, which is arguably the most powerful indicator of SES. Moreover, it examined domains of development that extend beyond academic learning, namely, social, emotional, behavioral, and motivational development. This is important because each domain of development relates to the others and acquiring skills in these specific domains promotes positive child development. Within the overall aim, two overarching questions were examined. The first overarching question examined the roles of household- and school-level parental education in the social, emotional, behavioral, and motivational development of children throughout the elementary school period. The second overarching question examined the role of the classroom context in inequalities in child development. Data used in this doctoral thesis came from two longitudinal research projects (‘Happy Children, Happy Adolescents’ and ‘The Dutch Elementary School Sample’) that included repeated measures spanning from kindergarten to end of elementary school. Data were collected from teachers, peers, parents, and children themselves. Overall, the findings of the present doctoral thesis are alarming and show an urgent need to take action to promote equal opportunities for all children regardless of their social backgrounds. To sum up, findings suggested that inequalities in social, emotional, behavioral, and motivational development exist between children growing up in higher- and lower-educated households and children attending higher and lower parental education schools at the beginning, during, and at the end of elementary school. Results showed that schools are not able to fully compensate for disparities in development between children growing up in higher- and lower-educated contexts. While attending higher parental education schools may have some benefits for children of lower-educated parents, they do not always benefit children of lower-educated parents to the same extent as children of higher-educated parents. Furthermore, findings showed that the classroom context may play a buffering (through a classroom based intervention) or exacerbating (through negative classroom norms) role in the problem development of children growing up in higher- and lower-educated households and schools. This doctoral research concludes that it is critical to provide more support to children growing up in lower-educated households and attending lower parental education schools. Importantly, findings indicate that the current efforts are not sufficient to ‘level the playing field’ between children growing up in higher- and lower-educated contexts. Nevertheless, the present doctoral thesis suggests that a multi-context and holistic approach may be necessary to more adequately address the challenges faced by children of lower-educated parents and lower parental education schools.