Association between low Functionings during Childhood and Child Flourishing Development

Social and economic deprivations during childhood can be important for subsequent child development. In this regard, there is a gap in literature regarding the role of childhood deprivations in child development status. My article aims to fill this gap in the literature by applying Moore’s approach to child development and inspecting the association between specific child deprivations in the years 1997 and 2002 and a low child development index, made up of poor health, poor education, and low social-emotional wellbeing, in the U.S.A. in the year 2007. This article contributes to the academic debate by showing specific childhood deprivations that may be associated with all or most of the three child development deprivations contemporaneously. In this sense, these deprivations may be particularly burdensome factors for child development. Regarding the methodology of analysis, this article employs the Panel Study of Income Dynamics dataset, and it applies a cross-sectional regression analysis. The findings suggest that poor parental health, poor child education, and child income poverty in the year 2002 are linked to the low child development index. Hence, the latter dimensions can be particularly important for policymakers and may play a key role in subsequent child development.