Rural China and the gender gap in early social-emotional development

Rural girls in China stay in school longer than boys and outperform them in many subjects. This gender gap suggests analogous disparities in early childhood development, a key factor in later educational outcomes. This study examines gender disparities in social-emotional development among 1,301 chi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChildren and youth services review Vol. 163; p. 107789
Main Authors Li, Shanshan, Jia, Xiyuan, Medina, Alexis, Weber, Ann M., Ma, Yue
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Ltd 01.08.2024
Subjects
Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional
Gender gap
Quantile analysis
School readiness
Social-emotional development
Social-emotional development
Gender gap
School readiness
Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional
Quantile analysis
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Summary:Rural girls in China stay in school longer than boys and outperform them in many subjects. This gender gap suggests analogous disparities in early childhood development, a key factor in later educational outcomes. This study examines gender disparities in social-emotional development among 1,301 children aged 18–30 months in rural China. Results indicate that male children trail their female counterparts by 0.18 SD on average on the scale of standardized ASQ:SE score. A large share of the difference is driven by the bottom 10 % of children, where the magnitude of the gender gap (0.34 SD) is 1.9 times larger than at the median (0.19 SD). Demographic characteristics are uncorrelated with the gender gap in heterogeneity analysis, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying observed gender disparities are similar across rural Chinese households.
ISSN:0190-7409
DOI:10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107789