Poorer children twice as likely to start school with behavioural problems
Lauren Higgs
Monday, November 1, 2010
Children from low-income families are twice as likely to start school with behavioural problems, research commissioned by the Sutton Trust has found.
The study, by academics at Bristol University, found that 35 per cent of boys from the poorest fifth of households had behavioural problems at age three, compared with 15 per cent of those from better-off families.
By age seven, 22 per cent still experienced behavioural problems, compared with 10 per cent of those from wealthier homes.
Similarly, 29 per cent of girls from low-income families had behavioural problems at age three and 20 per cent at age seven.
The research also found that the prevalence of behavioural problems has increased over the past decade.
Girls born to low-income families in the early 1990s were twice as likely as their better-off peers to record behavioural issues at age seven.
But disadvantaged girls born 10 years later were three-and-a-half times more likely to exhibit such behaviour.
The Sutton Trust is now partnering with charity the Impetus Trust to launch an early years initiative aimed at making children from low-income homes prepared for the start of school in cognitive, emotional and behavioural terms.
The programme will provide support in the form of funding and support for charities that work with disadvantaged children from birth to age five.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said the research proves how vital it is to intervene in the early years, to prevent behavioural problems affecting children’s social mobility in later life.
"This study builds on earlier evidence from the trust showing that children from poorer homes are already one year behind their middle-income peers on cognitive tests when they start school," he explained.
"We now know that disadvantaged children are also much more likely to have difficult and challenging behaviour. It is no wonder that the gaps in achievement grow during primary school."
Daniela Barone Soares, chief executive of Impetus Trust, argued that no child’s future should be determined at birth.
"Our goal is to break the present link between poverty at birth and life chances, with the goal of creating equal life opportunities for all children in the UK," she said.
