Household Socio-Economic Status And Child Development in Ghana

ABSTRACT

Early childhood development forms the foundation for a productive adult life of every individual and to the progress of every nation. The socioemotional domain of development is the bedrock of this foundation. The numerous psychosocial problems that ravage individuals and our societies informed the objective of this study to examine the influence of socioeconomic status of households, social relations and quality of home environment on the socioemotional outcomes of children in Ghana. The study made use of data from MICS 2011 of Ghana. Informed by existing literature on the subject and the survey questionnaire, socioemotional development of children was measured by signs of aggression, emotional stability and social relations within the household environment. Based on past literature and appropriateness to the current study, the Ecological Systems Theory of child development was adopted as the theoretical foundation. The chi-square test of association was used to analyse the relationships between the dependent and each of the independent variables and the binary logistic regression model employed to determine the predictors of child’s socioemotional development. The analysis revealed that wealth status of households is not a significant predictor of child’s socioemotional development. Availability of children’s books, engaging children in social activities, leaving children with other children, the age and sex of child, and region of residence were the significant predictors of socioemotional development. Female children were more likelihood to have positive socioemotional development outlook. The same is said of older children as their development improved with increase in age in months. These findings informed recommendations for parents and household members to engage regularly in social activities with children. It was also recommended that children be allowed to use household objects for playing. It was further recommended that more research work should be done on the measures of socioemotional development, social relations and home environment in order to have uniformity in their measurements.