Repeated unemployment in the household and child vulnerability in receptive vocabulary achievement

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Résumé (français)

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Résumé (anglais)

Within Canadian families, if both parents in a couple family or the mother in a sole parent are repeatedly unemployed during the child’s early years, this experience can increase the likelihood of a child being vulnerable to poor achievement in the acquisition of receptive vocabulary, an important pre-curser to learning to read. This study uses data from the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sample of the National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth (NLSCY) from 1996 to 2008. Information from mothers of a provincially representative sample of Canadian babies was collected when the child was aged 0-1years, 2-3 years and 4-5 years. Evidence of poor receptive vocabulary development was measured by an indicator variable and a series of logistics regression models were performed to examine the relationship between unemployment and the child’s outcome. Our results demonstrate that repeated unemployment increases the likelihood of a poor PPVT score, independent of other aspects of SES such as income. However parental behaviour such as reading to the child on a daily basis can reduce this probability.