An Association between Poverty, Health and Developmental Risks during Early Childhood with Subsequent Academic Performance

Abstract

Using a large scale of administrative records provided by a local government, this study showed that experiencing family financial difficulties before school entry, signaled by receiving public assistance, and a child's own risk on health/development evaluated at the time of the Health Checkup for 3-year-old children lowered academic performance. It was deduced that the negative association between past financial difficulties of families and academic performance was greater than that between children's health and developmental risks and academic performance. Furthermore, the longer the period of exposure to family financial difficulties is, the greater the impact is. Additionally, the absence of health checkups for 3-year-old children was negatively related to academic performance. It was discussed that information on administrative records related to the welfare, health, and education of all children aggregated across jurisdictions and clarifying the relationship between developmental risk factors and outcomes would be extremely important for the effective implementation of scientifically based outreach and push-type support.