Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Parenting skills and early childhood development: production function estimates from longitudinal data

  • Published:
Review of Economics of the Household Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We provide evidence on the importance of specific inputs for child cognitive skills by estimating alternative specifications of the early childhood production function, between birth and kindergarten. We identify a new input measure, parent–child interaction, which is both important for development and amenable to policy intervention because parenting skills can be taught. We find that the application of reading books and singing songs and sensitive and engaging parent–child interactions as early as 9 months of age have an important effect on reading among kindergarten children.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In poor countries, early cognition are strong determinants of school enrollment and achievement scores in adolescence, grade repetition, and overall grade attainment (Grantham-McGregor et al. 2007). This pattern in the achievement gap is also documented for a developing country in Paxson and Schady (2007).

  2. In particular, factors that represent relative prices (such as state of residence) or income do not enter into the production function. Region of residence may serve as a proxy for inputs that do directly affect cognition (such as environmental contamination or epidemiological conditions) in which case they may justifiably be included in the EPF. Race may reflect access to resources, which would also influence input choice, but not the technical relationship itself. However, if race reflects cultural practices, which in turn influences how inputs are applied, this reflects technical efficiency and would enter the CDPF.

  3. Note that a large literature exists regarding VAMs in the economics of education literature for school-aged students (e.g., Sass et al. 2014; Koedel et al. 2015; Chetty et al. 2014); however, we restrict our focus here on how VAMs guide the specification of early childhood inputs, not as a method to evaluate teachers (or in our case—parents) in the development of human capital.

  4. This assumption also applies to the historical impact of endowed mental capacity (µ).

  5. Todd and Wolpin (2003) discuss the issue of unmeasured inputs in the production function. To the extent that these are correlated with measured inputs they will also bias production function estimates in standard OLS type analysis.

  6. Note that there are differences in sample sizes across waves. See Table 1 for further detail.

  7. Unfortunately, the ECLS-B does not measure maternal intelligence directly through IQ tests or other similar assessments. This is noted in other recent studies using the data, which use educational attainment as the sole measure of maternal cognitive ability (e.g., Fryer et al. 2013; Rothstein 2012).

  8. Number of books was not measured at the 9-month wave.

  9. The NLSY data used in Todd and Wolpin (2007) has the complete HOME-SF measure (sum of all binary items), which serves as their sole measure of home inputs.

  10. We also control for child’s age in months at the time of assessment to account for between-child differences in the actual timing of the assessment as they were collected during the ECLS-B.

  11. Many children in our sample are missing this input (50% at 9 mo and 2 years, 21% at age 4, 60% at kindergarten).

  12. Because the dependent variable is now reading skills at the age-4 wave, the maximum number of lags available is 2. Also, the models in Table 2 suggest that a third period lag added very little information.

  13. Of course the age-5 estimates do not include school inputs, which can be an important source of omitted variable bias. This source of bias is less of a concern for the age-4 (pre-school age) models.

  14. The ECLS-B investigators report that the subscales 9-month NCATS data have low alphas, which suggests that these subscales do not measure unitary constructs (see ECLS-B 9-Month Psychometric Report (Andreassen, Fletcher and West 2005) Section 6.5, for more detail). For this reason we did not investigate the components of the 9-month assessment.

  15. While many of the caregivers in our sample where mothers, this is not to say that these aspects of parenting wouldn’t be just as beneficial with fathers (Tamis-LeMonda et al. 2004).

References

  • Als, H., Frank, H. D., McAnulty, G. B., Rivkin, M. J., Vajapeyam, S., Mulkern, R. V., Warfield, S. K., Huppi, P. S., Butler, S. C., Conneman, N., Fischer, C., & Eichenwald, E. C. (2004). Early experience alters brain function and structure. Pediatrics, 113(4), 846–857.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andreassen, C., & Fletcher, P. (2007). Early childhood longitudinal study, birth cohort (ECLS-B): Psychometric report for the 2-year data collection: Methodology report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Angrist, J. D., & Victor, L. (1999). Using Maimonides’ rule to estimate the effect of class size on scholastic achievement*. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(2), 533–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baker, M., & Milligan, K. (2013). Boy-girl differences in parental time investments: Evidence from three countries. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 18893.

  • Bartik, T. J. (2011). Investing in kids: Early childhood programs and local economic development. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bayley, N. (1993). Bayley scales of infant development (2nd ed.). San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. (1965). A theory of the allocation of time. The Economic Journal, 75(299), 493–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belfield, C. R, M. Nores, W. S. Barnett, & Schweinhart, L. J. (2006). The high/scope Perry preschool program. Journal of Human Resources XLI(1):162–190.

  • Blair, C., Douglas, A. G., Kivlighan, K. T., Mills-Koonce, R., Willoughby, M., Greenberg, M. T., Hibel, L. C., & Fortunato, C. K. (2008). Maternal and child contributions to cortisol response to emotional arousal in young children from low-income, rural communities. Developmental Psychology, 44(4), 1095–1109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, R. H., & Corwyn, R. F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooks-Gunn, J., & Markham, L. B. (2005). The contribution of parenting to racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness. The Future of Children 15(1), 139–168

  • Brooks-Gunn, J., Jui Han, W., & Waldfogel, J. (2002). Maternal employment and child cognitive outcomes in the first three years of life: The NICHD study of early child care. Child Development, 73(4), 1052–1072.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunello, G., Weber, G., & Weiss, C. T. (2016). Books are forever: Early life conditions, education and lifetime earnings in Europe. The Economic Journal.

  • Burchinal, M. R., Campbell, F. A., Bryant, D., Wasik, B. H., & Ramey, C. T. (1997). Early intervention and mediating processes in cognitive performance of children of low-income African American families. Child Development, 68(5), 935.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, B. M., & Bradley, R. H. (1984). Home observation for measurement of the environment. Little Rock: University of Arkansas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, F. A., Pungello, E., Burchinal, M. R., Kainz, K., Pan, Y., Wasik, B. H., Barbarin, O. A., Sparling, J. J., & Ramey, C. T. (2012). Adult outcomes as a function of an early childhood educational program: An Abecedarian project follow-up. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1033.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro, P., Heckman, J. J., & Masterov, D. V. (2005). Understanding the sources of ethnic and racial wage gaps and their implications for policy. In L. B. Nielsen & R. L. Nelson (Eds.), Handbook of employment discrimination research (pp. 99–136). Dordrecht, Neth: Springer Netherlands.

  • Case, A., & Paxson, C. (2006). Stature and status: Height, ability and labor market outcomes. NBER Working Paper No. 12466.

  • Chetty, R., John, N. F., & Rockoff, J. E. (2014). Measuring the impacts of teachers: Evaluating bias in teacher value-added estimates. American Economic Review, 104(9), 2593–2632.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crocker, L., & Aligna, J. (2008). Introduction to classical & modern test theory. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunha, F., & Heckman, J. J. (2007). The technology of skill formation. American Economic Review 97(2), 31–47.

  • Cunha, F., Heckman, J. J., & Schennach, S. M. (2010). Estimating the technology of cognitive and noncognitive skill formation. Econometrica, 78(3), 883–931.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Currie, J. (2009). Healthy, wealthy, and wise: Socioeconomic status, poor health in childhood, and human capital development. Journal of Economic Literature, 47(1), 87–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, G., Ashman, S. B., & Carver, L. J. (2000). The role of early experience in shaping behavioral and brain development and its implications for social policy. Development and psychopathology, 12(04), 695–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, G. J., & Gibson-Davis, C. M. (2006). Connecting child care quality to child outcomes: Drawing policy lessons from nonexperimental data. Evaluation Review, 30(5), 611–630.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, G. J., & Magnuson, K. (2013). Investing in preschool programs. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27(2), 109–132. doi:10.1257/jep.27.2.109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinstein, L. (2003). Inequality in the early cognitive development of british children in the 1970 cohort. Economica, 70(277), 73–97. doi:10.1111/1468-0335.t01-1-00272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, S. E., Levitt, P., & Nelson, C. A. (2010). How the timing and quality of early experiences influence the development of brain architecture. Child Development, 81(1), 28–40. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01380.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fryer, Jr, G. R., & Levitt, S. D. (2013). Testing for racial differences in the mental ability of young children. The American Economic Review, 103(2), 981–1005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gelber, A., & Isen, A. (2013). Children’s schooling and parents’ behavior: Evidence from the Head Start Impact Study. Journal of Public Economics, 101(0), 25–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gershoff, E. T., Raver, C. C., Aber, J. L., & Lennon, M. C. (2007). Income is not enough: Incorporating material hardship into models of income associations with parenting and child development. Child Development, 78(1), 70–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gomby, D. S., Culross, P. L., & Behrman, R. E. (1999). Home visiting: Recent program evaluations-analysis and recommendations. The Future of Children, 9(1), 4–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gormley, W. T., Phillips, D., & Gayer, T. (2008). Preschool programs can boost school readiness. Science, 320(5884), 1723–1724. doi:10.1126/science.1156019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grantham-McGregor, S., Cheung, Y. B., Cueto, S., Glewwe, P., Richter, L., & Strupp, B. (2007). Developmental potential in the first 5 years for children in developing countries. The Lancet, 369(9555), 60–70. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(07)60032-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenough, W. T., James, E. B., & Wallace, C. S. (1987). Experience and brain development. Child Development, 58(3), 539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grissmer, D., & Eiseman, E. (2008). Can gaps in the quality of early environments and non-cognitive skills help explain persisting black-white achievement gaps? In K. A. Magnuson, & J. Waldfogel (Eds.), Steady gains and stalled progress: Inequality and the Black-White test score gap. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guryan, J., Hurst, E., & Kearney, M. (2008). Parental education and parental time with children. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(3), 23–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hackman, D. A., Martha, J. F., & Michael, J. M. (2010). Socioeconomic status and the brain: Mechanistic insights from human and animal research. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(9), 651–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanushek, E. A., John, F. K., Markman, J. M., & Rivkin, S. G. (2003). Does peer ability affect student achievement? Journal of Applied Econometrics, 18(5), 527–544.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hart, B., & Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experiences of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.

  • Heckman, J. J., & Masterov, D. V. (2007). The productivity argument for investing in young children. Review of Agricultural Economics, 29(3), 446–493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. J. (2011). The economics of inequality: The value of early childhood education. American Educator, 35(1), 31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. J., & Mosso, S. (2014). The economics of human development and social mobility. Annual Review of Economics, 6(1), 689–733. doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-080213-040753.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heckman, J. J. (2006). Skill formation and the economics of investing in disadvantaged students. Science, 312(5782), 1900–1902.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, C., Gormley, W., & Adelstein, S. (2012). Do the short-term effets of a strong preschool program persist? Working Paper #18. Washington, DC: Center for Research on Children in the United States, Georgetown University.

  • Hoff, E. (2003). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Development, 74(5), 1368–1378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1991). Mother-child conversation in different social classes and communicative settings. Child Development, 62(4), 782–796. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1991.tb01569.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Isaacs, J., Toran, K., Hahn, H., Fortuny, K., & Steuerle, C. E. (2012). Kids’ share 2012: Report on federal expenditures on children through 2011. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalil, A., Rebecca, R., & Corey, M. (2012). Diverging destinies: Maternal education and the developmental gradient in time with children. Demography, 49(4), 1361–1383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knudsen, E. I. (2004). Sensitive periods in the development of the brain and behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(8), 1412–1425. doi:10.1162/0898929042304796.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koedel, C., Mihaly, K., & Rockoff, J. E. (2015). Value-added modeling: A review. Economics of Education Review, 47, 180–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, P. (2008). Building brain architecture and chemistry: A primer for policymakers. In A. R. Tarlov, & M. P. Debbink (Eds.), Investing in early childhood development: Evidence to support a movement for educational change (pp. 3–26). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lipsey, M. W., Kerry, G. H., Dong, N., Farran, D. C., & Bilbrey, C. (2013). Evaluation of the tennessee voluntary prekindergarten program: Kindergarten and first grade follow-up results from the randomized control design. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University, Peabody Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lord, F. M. (1980). Applications of item response theory to practical testing problems. Hillsdale, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Love, J. M., Kisker, E. E., Ross, C., Raikes, H., Constantine, J., Boller, K., Brooks-Gunn, J., Chazan-Cohen, R., Banks Tarullo, L., Brady-Smith, C., Sidle Fuligni, A., Schochet, P. Z., Paulsell, D., & Vogel, C. (2005). The effectiveness of early head start for 3-year-old children and their parents: Lessons for policy and programs. Developmental Psychology, 41(6), 885–901.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupien, S. J., King, S., Meaney, M. J., & McEwen, B. S. (2000). Child’s stress hormone levels correlate with mother’s socioeconomic status and depressive state. Biological Psychiatry, 48(10), 976–980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magnuson, K. A., Meyers, M. K., Ruhm, C. J., & Waldfogel, J. (2004). Inequality in preschool education and school readiness. American Educational Research Journal, 41(1), 115–157. doi:10.3102/00028312041001115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulligan, G. M., Brimhall, D., & West, J. (2005). Childcare and early education arrangements of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers: 2001 (NCES 2006-039). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nord, Ch., Edwards, B., Andreassen, C., Green, J. L. & Wallner-Allen, K. (2006). User’s manual for the ECLS-B longitudinal 9-month--2-year data file and electronic codebook. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

  • Paxson, C., & Schady, N. (2007). Cognitive development among young children in ecuador. Journal of Human Resources, XLII(1), 49–84. doi:10.3368/jhr.XLII.1.49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raikes, H., Pan, B. A., Luze, G., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Brooks-Gunn, J., Constantine, J., Tarullo, L. B., Raikes, H. A., & Rodriguez, E. T. (2006). Mother–child bookreading in low-income families: Correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life. Child Development, 77(4), 924–953. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00911.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reardon, S. F. (2011). The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor: New evidence and possible explanations. In G. J. Duncan, & R. J. Murnane (Eds.), Whither opportunity (pp. 91–116). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, A. J., Judy, A. T., & Ou, S. (2010). Preschool education, educational attainment, and crime prevention: Contributions of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(8), 1054–1063. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.10.019.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rivkin, S. G., Hanushek, E., & Kain, J. (2005). Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Econometrica, 73(2), 417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, E. T., & Tamis-LeMonda, C. S. (2011). Trajectories of the home learning environment across the first 5 years: Associations with children’s vocabulary and literacy skills at prekindergarten. Child Development, 82(4), 1058–1075. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01614.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, E. T., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Spellmann, M. E., Pan, B. A., Raikes, H., Lugo-Gil, J., & Luze, G. (2009). The formative role of home literacy experiences across the first three years of life in children from low-income families. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(6), 677–694. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2009.01.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein, D. S. (2012). Breastfeeding and children’s early cognitive outcomes. Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(3), 919–931. doi:10.1162/REST_a_00282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sass, T. R., Semykina, A., & Harris, D. N. (2014). Value-added models and the measurement of teacher productivity. Economics of Education Review, 38(0), 9–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D. (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, W. (1995). Development and plasticity of cortical processing architectures. Science 270(5237), 758–764.

  • Stewart, K. (2013). Labour’s record on the under fives: Policy, spending and outcomes 1997-2010. In Social policy in a cold climate. Center for Analysis of Social Exclusion: The London School of Economics and Political Science. London, UK: Organizations listed.

  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Briggs, R. D., McClowry, S. G., & Snow, D. L. (2009). Maternal control and sensitivity, child gender, and maternal education in relation to children’s behavioral outcomes in african american families. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 30(3), 321–331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Shannon, J. D., Cabrera, N. J., & Lamb, M. E. (2004). Fathers and mothers at play with their 2- and 3-year-olds: Contributions to language and cognitive development. Child Development, 75(6), 1806–1820.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Todd, P. E., & Wolpin, K. (2003). On the specification and estimation of the production function for cognitive achievement. The Economic Journal (London), 113(485), 3.

    Google Scholar 

  • Todd, P. E., & Wolpin, K. (2007). The production of cognitive achievement in children: Home, school, and racial test score gaps. Journal of Human Capital, 1(1), 91–136. doi:10.1086/526401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wong, V. C., Cook, T. D., Barnett, W. S., & Jung, K. (2008). An effectiveness-based evaluation of five state pre-kindergarten programs. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 27(1), 122–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of California, Irvine 3200 Education, Irvine, CA, USA

    Jade Marcus Jenkins

  2. Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNICEF, CB# 3435 Abernethy Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Sudhanshu Handa

Authors
  1. Jade Marcus Jenkins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sudhanshu Handa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jade Marcus Jenkins.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jenkins, J.M., Handa, S. Parenting skills and early childhood development: production function estimates from longitudinal data. Rev Econ Household 17, 121–147 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-017-9376-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-017-9376-y

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation