Early Years: Tackling Inequalities In Scotland

TACKLING INEQUALITIES IN THE EARLY YEARS

Summary

This overview of findings has highlighted that GUS is a valuable resource for measuring inequalities in outcomes and risk behaviours in the early years and how they have changed across time. An important contribution it makes is in identifying how earlier life experiences impact on later outcomes for children and young people.

Main Findings:

• Even in the early years of a child’s life, there are consistent inequalities, not only in outcomes, but particularly in risk behaviours that we believe have longer-term consequences for health and development.
• There is considerable inequality that mothers face in the early years. Socio-economically disadvantaged households appear to face a double burden of inequality with the child and the main carer at greater risk of negative health outcomes.
• Comparisons between the two GUS cohorts, up to age three have revealed some overall improvements for children born in 2010/11 compared with those born in 2004/05:

• An increase in the proportion of mothers who abstained from alcohol during pregnancy, from 74% of mothers to 80%.
• A decline in the proportion of mothers who smoked when their children were aged three from 28% to 24%.
• An increase in the proportion of parents who looked at books or read stories with their 10 month old child either every day or most days. This increased from 66% to 69%.
• A small but statistically significant increase in mean vocabulary scores at age three.
• A small but statistically significant increase in mental wellbeing scores among main carers when their children were aged three.

• Comparisons have also revealed that some health outcomes appear to have deteriorated overall across the cohorts. It is possible, however, that this is due to earlier or more effective diagnosis of conditions:
• An increase in the proportion of age three children with a long-standing illness or disability, from 14%to 17%.
• A decrease in self-reported levels of excellent health amongst mothers, around the time of their child’s third birthday, from 21% to 17%.
• Overall, there was no change in problem-solving ability at age three across the two cohorts. However, there was a narrowing of the gap in ability across the income groups.
• Although the socio-economic gap has widened for alcohol consumption in pregnancy, this is due to a larger increase in rates of abstinence among the most economically disadvantaged than the most advantaged.
• While it is difficult to counter the very powerful socio-economic influences on children’s lives, there are some factors that seem to promote positive outcomes or build resilience, in the face of socio- economic disadvantage:
• A rich home learning environment can improve cognitive development for all children, regardless of their socio-economic background.
• High quality early learning and childcare can help to reduce inequalities in cognitive development.
• Being born to an older mother makes children more resilient to a range of negative outcomes.
• Improving the physical and mental health of mothers is likely to have a positive effect on the health and development of their children.
• Supporting parenting skills can help protect against the impact of adversity and disadvantage.
• The role of the health visitor, in providing one-to-one advice and support to parents, should be
  central in the efforts to tackle inequalities in the early years.
• It is important to ensure that messages about positive parenting practices are understood by grandparents as well as parents.

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