The impact of mother's and father's income and education on social, cognitive, and academic development in Early Childhood Education and Care and for further learning

Abstract

According to the Norwegian Framework plan for kindergartens, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centers must work to equalize the negative consequences of social inequality, for example, related to parents' education and income. To be able to counteract social differences linked to parents' education and income level, it is crucial to identify what kind of differences already exist between children in ECEC. This can provide a basis for enhancing learning opportunities for all children. In this study, we use data from the Skoleklar project to examine social, cognitive, and academic differences in children’s development linked to parents' education and income. The results show relatively large differences in ECEC between children of parents with high versus low income and between children of parents with high versus low education both in terms of social, cognitive, and academic development. Data from the same children in the 1^st, 5^th, and 8^th grades show that differences related to academic development persist or increase in school.