Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development.

By S. Walker, T. Wachs, S. Grantham‐McGregor, M. Black, Charles A. Nelson, S. Huffman, H. Baker-Henningham, Susan M. Chang, J. Hamadani, B. Lozoff and 4 more. The Lancet, 2011

1,554 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Inequality between and within populations has origins in adverse early experiences. Developmental neuroscience shows how early biological and psychosocial experiences affect brain development. We previously identified inadequate cognitive stimulation, stunting, iodine deficiency, and iron-deficiency anaemia as key risks that prevent millions of young children from attaining their developmental potential. Recent research emphasises the importance of these risks, strengthens the evidence for other risk factors including intrauterine growth restriction, malaria, lead exposure, HIV infection, maternal depression, institutionalisation, and exposure to societal violence, and identifies protective factors such as breastfeeding and maternal education. Evidence on risks resulting from prenatal maternal nutrition, maternal stress, and families affected with HIV is emerging. Interventions are urgently needed to reduce children's risk exposure and to promote development in affected children. Our goal is to provide information to help the setting of priorities for early child development programmes and policies to benefit the world's poorest children and reduce persistent inequalities.

Subfields: Nutrition and Dietetics, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/789c654a02e7365ae599215d739233cd12caa42a

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In Nutrition and Dietetics

O. Attanasio

In Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

In Safety Research

Citations in the corpus

THE DETERMINANTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL FORMATION DURING THE EARLY YEARS OF LIFE: THEORY, MEASUREMENT, AND POLICIES (2015, background): “Despite the fact that many children in developing countries present important deficiencies in many micronutrients, the authors of the series (Walker et al. 2011, p. 1328) conclude that “...[t]here are insufficient data to establish whether supplementation with multiple micronutrients is more…”
Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success (2014, neutral): “9 Walsh (2005). 10 Cunha and Heckman (2007, 2008); Cunha et al.”
Ethical Challenges of Parenting Interventions in Low- to Middle-Income Countries (2018, background): “There is the view that children’s “lack of early learning opportunities and appropriate caregiver–child interactions contribute to loss of developmental potential” (Walker et al., 2011, p. 1330).”
A heavy burden on young minds: the global burden of mental and substance use disorders in children and youth (2014, background): “Service delivery for children and youth with mental and substance use disorders in LMICs will be further complicated by co-occurring social adversities (Walker et al. 2011) such as intimate partner violence (Devries et al.”
Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children's learning in 15 countries. (2013, background): “Calling attention to the general dearth of empirical evidence in this area, Walker et al. (2011) noted the continued need for research in low-income regions on the effects of interventions on children's socio-emotional development, as well as cognitive development.”