pdf [5.3MB] - Department of Families, Housing, Community Services

‘Human capital investments have, over the past half century, been almostexclusively directed at formal education. It is only quite recently that we havecome to realise that the foundations of learning – as well as the chief mainspringsof inequalities – lie buried in the pre-school phase of childhood and that schoolsare generally ill-equipped to remedy a bad start’.A framework was produced by Amuwo et al (2004) to examine the effectiveness of parentaldiscipline in producing desirable child outcomes. The overarching theory was that the linksbetween discipline and performance is really the result of two linkages – first, from disciplineand other parental inputs to child effort and, second, from child effort to child performance.Other factors such as governance and communication aid in the facilitation of theseprocesses.Outcomes are described as being near-term (that is, within a generation) and include betterchild-family relationships and performance at school. Alternatively, outcomes can be longterm (that is, intergenerational) and include higher incomes earned by children when theybecome adults.Socioeconomic status, parental involvement at school as well as parental income and assetbase have been found by a number of studies to be strongly associated with outcomes ofbetter school performance. These factors may be strongly correlated (and indeed mayproxy) other characteristics of FF.For example, Ermisch (2008) found that the parent’s socioeconomic status affects children’sintellectual, emotional and behavioural development, which in turn has implications insubsequent years as adults. This study found that higher income parents had children agedthree years old with better cognitive and behavioural assessments, while another significantfinding was that parents on a low income spent less time reading and teaching their children.Parental socioeconomic status (high incomes of parents) was associated with a greaterprobability of parents engaging with children more. Figure 2-4 shows the proportions ofparents in different income brackets associated with: taking them to the library; partaking in other educational activities (Eda4); positive parenting style (Pstyle); and,foetal growth of the child before birth (Fetgr) – a useful indicator of the health andnutrition of baby and parent.20