Abstract
Children’s early development is influenced by characteristics of the child, family, and environment, including exposure to substance abuse. The aim was to examine the association of early childhood development (ECD) with the prevalence of psychoactive substance use in Mexican municipalities. We obtained ECD data from the 2015 Survey of Boys, Girls, and Women (ENIM, for its Spanish acronym), measured with the ECD Index. The prevalence of psychoactive substance use was estimated at the municipal level, using the 2016 National Survey of Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco Use (ENCODAT, for its Spanish acronym). Multilevel logistic models were fitted to evaluate the association between drug use and inadequacies in ECD overall and in four specific ECD domains: socio-emotional, literacy-numeric, learning, and physical. Inadequate ECD was directly associated with illegal drug use (OR = 1.10; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.17). For the specific ECD domains, inadequate socio-emotional development was directly associated with illegal drug use (OR = 1.08; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.15). These findings suggest that exposure to illegal drug use may influence ECD, and especially can lead to socio-emotional problems, although this cannot be considered the unanimous determinant of the problems presented. The implementation of evidence-based interventions to prevent drug abuse is necessary.
Highlights
A higher prevalence of inadequate early childhood development (ECD) was observed in children who were exposed to domestic violence than in those who did not (18.7%% and 12.8%, respectively)
This study evaluated the association between the prevalence of psychoactive substance use and inadequate ECD, both overall and in four ECD domains
We found that greater illegal drug use in Mexican municipalities was associated with greater odds of inadequate ECD
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Childhood development (ECD) represents a key window of opportunity for human development, and has recently received international acknowledgement as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals [1]. Children experience an extremely rapid development process, which makes them vulnerable to adverse living conditions [2]. Poor children have a lower quality of ECD than their more affluent peers, and interventions to correct these socioeconomic disparities often come too late: early life interventions are essential for individuals to attain their optimal development [3,4]
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