Place-based Social Determinants of Health Associated with Multiple Early Childhood Educational Outcomes
摘要
Socioeconomic (SES) disparities in early childhood education (ECE) outcomes are well-established. The social determinants of health (SDOH) framework organizes the pathways that shape SES-related disparities in ECE outcomes. Neighborhood-level SDOH uniquely impact ECE outcomes after considering family- and school-level SES, but little guidance is available on which measures are most appropriate for researchers, stakeholders, policymakers, and school administrators. The current study compared associations between four neighborhood-level SDOH measures (Social Deprivation Index, Healthy Places Index, Social Vulnerability Index, and Social Vulnerability Metric) with three ECE outcomes for kindergarten through third grade students (percentage of student meeting math and reading benchmarks and attendance rate). Linear mixed effects models of aggregated school data (N = 644) for the 2022 and 2023 academic years clustered by zip code (N = 165) were estimated. Results showed that all four measures of SDOH were significantly associated with all three ECE outcomes. The Social Deprivation Index showed the strongest association with ECE outcomes explaining 41%, 46%, and 22% of the variance in math benchmarks, reading benchmarks, and attendance rates respectively. The current study provides important information for researchers, stakeholders, policymakers, and school administrators seeking to combat SES-related disparities in ECE by demonstrating clear associations between neighborhood-level SDOH and three school-level ECE outcomes. The SDI offers a simple, readily available measure of SDOH that may inform research and policy regarding use of funding allocated to support student learning.