Neighbourhood and family influences on the cognitive ability of children in the British National Child Development Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the association between family poverty, the level of deprivation in electoral wards and children's cognitive test scores using data from the second generation in the 1991 sweep of the British National Child Development Study (1958 birth cohort). Family poverty has a significant association with lower test scores in children of all ages (4–18 years). Neighbourhood poverty has a significant association with lower test scores in children aged 4–5 years which, though somewhat attenuated, is independent of other socioeconomic indicators. Among children aged between 6 and 9 years, the association with neighbourhood deprivation is statistically accounted for by individual characteristics. Among children aged between 10 and 18 years, levels of neighbourhood deprivation were for the most part statistically insignificant. The family poverty — test score association among children aged between 10 and 18 years was mediated by the home environment. Mediated effects were stronger for family poverty — test score associations than for neighbourhood poverty. The use of a neighbourhood-level exposure related to the social environment leads to an understanding of the social determinants of children's outcomes that is more than the sum of individual and family-level measures. However, the size of the estimated effects of neighbourhood conditions is much smaller than the estimated effects of family-level conditions. Thus, it appears that families still should be viewed as the key agents in promoting positive development in children.