ABSTRACT

Measurement of early childhood development at the population level has traditionally been neglected in Latin America. In this context, Uruguay stands out for having two population-based protocols: the Nutrition, Child Development and Health Survey (ENDIS), a home survey, and the School Readiness - Child Development Inventory (INDI). This paper aims to present both assessment experiences and analyse Uruguayan children's cognitive and socioemotional development according to sex and their families' socioeconomic status (SES). Comparisons were made between samples of children aged 1–6. Results suggest that girls generally show better development, except for internalized behaviour, but effect sizes tend to be small. In both surveys, children of high-SES show better development indicators than their low-SES counterparts, with larger effect sizes in fluid intelligence (problem-solving and mathematics). Differences between SES-quintiles consolidate after 30 months of age. Our findings contribute to the development of evidence-based public policies aimed to reduce developmental disparities.

摘要

在拉丁美洲，对儿童早期发展的人口水平测量历来被忽视。在这种情况下，乌拉圭因拥有两项基于人口的协议而脱颖而出：营养、儿童发展和健康调查 (ENDIS)、家庭调查和入学准备 - 儿童发展清单 (INDI)。本文旨在介绍评估经验，并根据性别及其家庭的社会经济地位 (SES) 分析乌拉圭儿童的认知和社会情感发展。对 1-6 岁儿童样本进行了比较。结果表明，除了内化行为外，女孩通常表现出更好的发展，但效应量往往很小。在这两项调查中，高 SES 的孩子比低 SES 的孩子表现出更好的发展指标，在流体智能（问题解决和数学）中具有更大的影响大小。SES-五分位数之间的差异在 30 个月大后巩固。我们的研究结果有助于制定旨在减少发展差距的循证公共政策。