Does Disadvantage Start at Home? Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Early Childhood Home Routines, Safety, and Educational Practices

Glenn Flores, Lynn Olson, Sandy Tomany.;  Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin/Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI; Department of Practice and Research, American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, IL.

 

BACKGROUND: Little is known about whether racial/ethnic differences exist at home in family activities, safety, and educational opportunities known to affect young children's development and future school success.

 

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether there are disparities in early childhood home routines, safety, and educational practices.

 

DESIGN/METHODS: The 2000 National Survey of Early Childhood Health, a national phone survey of parents of 2,608 children aged 4 to 35 months, was used to examine differences in selected home family activities, safety, and educational practices for white (W), African-American (AA) and Latino (L) children. STATA was used to obtain odds ratios (ORs) in multivariate analyses adjusting for insurance, health status, income, age, parental education, and interview language (English/Spanish).

 

RESULTS: AA & L children are significantly (P<.05) less likely than Ws to eat meals & go to bed at the same time daily. AA & L children more often never eat lunch or dinner with their family or do so 1-2 days/week (AA & L: 26%; W: 10%). AA & L parents more often want to spend more time with their child (AA & L: 29%; W: 20%). AA & L parents less often install baby gates (62% vs 67% vs 82%) and cabinet safety locks (73% vs 78% vs 85%) than Ws. AA & L parents less often read daily to their child (L, 29%; AA, 46%; W, 61%), L parents most often never read to their child (L, 15%; AA, 5%; W, 3%) and L & AA homes have lower mean numbers of children's books (L: 33; AA: 41; W: 83). AA children average more hours watching TV daily (2.4 vs. 1.6 in W & 1.6 in L). Disparities persisting in multivariate analyses were: AA children not having regular meal times (OR, 1.9 [1.2-2.9]) and watching 1 more hour of TV daily; AA parents wanting more time with their children and not installing cabinet safety locks; AA & L parents have twice the odds of not putting up baby gates and not reading to their child daily; and AA & L homes having significantly fewer children's books (AA: -31; L, -23).

 

CONCLUSIONS: Minority children experience multiple disparities in home routines, safety, and educational practices that potentially can impede healthy development and future school success. The greatest number and severity of disparities occur in AA children, and daily reading and children's books at home are uncommon for L children. Findings suggest such disparities might be reduced through targeted education by pediatric providers.