Early childcare

Early childcare type predicts children’s emotional and behavioural trajectories into middle childhood. Data from the EDEN mother–child cohort study

1. Ramchandar Gomajee1, 
2. Fabienne El-Khoury1, 
3. Sylvana Côté2,3, 
4. Judith van der Waerden1, 
5. Laura Pryor1, 
6. Maria Melchior1 
7. on behalf of The EDEN mother-child Cohort Study Group

Author affiliations

Abstract

Background The scientific literature on the impact of early childcare on children’s behavioural and emotional difficulties shows contrasting results. We studied this association in France, where childcare is of high quality and children enter preschool at the age of 3.

Methods 1428 children from the EDEN (Etude des Déterminants du développement et de la santé de l’ENfant) mother–child cohort set up in France (Nancy and Poitiers) were followed up since pregnancy to the age of 8 years. Group-based trajectory modelling was used to model their trajectories of behavioural and emotional symptoms (emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention, conduct problems, prosocial behaviours) ascertained by three measures (3, 5.5 and 8 years) of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Using propensity scores and inverse probability weights (IPWs) to account for selection and confounding factors, we compared children in a childminder’s care or in centre-based childcare (from birth to age 3) with those in informal childcare.

World's Children report 2014

The State of the World's Children reports

Each year, UNICEF’s flagship publication, The State of the World's Children, closely examines a key issue affecting children. The report includes supporting data and statistics and is available in French and Spanish language versions.  

2014

The State of the World’s Children 2014 In Numbers: Every Child Counts

La Situation des enfants dans le monde 2014 en chiffres : chaque enfant compte

El Estado Mundial de la Infancia de 2014 en Cifras: Todos los niños y niñas cuentan

World Children 2012

From: Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC)
Save the Children
Child Development Index 2012: Progress, Challenges and Inequality

Available online PDF [36p.]  at: http://bit.ly/P6Pfmi

“…..The 2012 edition of the Child Development Index tells a story of success. This edition of the Index shows that substantial progress has been made in addressing the most basic threats to child survival and well-being. On average, the lives of children around the world in the indicators we measured improved by more than 30%.
This means that the chances of a child going to school were one-third higher, and the chances of an infant dying before their fifth birthday were one-third lower at the end of the 2000s than a decade before. During this period child well-being improved in 90% of the countries surveyed…..” 

Content:

Executive summary

Box: Measuring children’s well-being

1 A decade of progress in child well-being

Developing countries accelerate progress

Inequalities between developed and developing countries remain

Box: The Child Development Index and the Human Development Index

2 Undernutrition: holding back progress

Under-five mortality

Primary school enrolment

Undernutrition

Box: The uncounted

3 Food and financial crises threaten increased undernutrition

Conclusions

Recommendations

Appendix

The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World.

• • UNICEF REPORT

Urbanisation has left hundreds of millions of children excluded from vital services, UNICEF warns in its new report, The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World.

Over half the world's population - including more than a billion children - now live in cities and towns.

• Read a multimedia version of the report
• Download the report as a PDF

Cities offer many children the advantages of urban schools, clinics and playgrounds. Yet the same cities the world over are also the settings for some of the greatest disparities in children's health, education and wellbeing.

"When we think of poverty, the image that traditionally comes to mind is that of a child in a rural village," says UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. "But today, an increasing number of children living in slums and shantytowns are among the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in the world, deprived of the most basic services and denied the right to thrive." 

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Filesize: 4062KB

Published: 28/02/2012

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State of the World Children 2011 UNICEF

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Children's environmental health

10 facts on children's environmental health December 2009 WHO/C. Gaggero All children need healthy, safe and protective environments to ensure normal growth, development and well-being. Nearly one-third of the nine million under-five child deaths every year are associated with environment-related causes and conditions. Environmental risk factors often act in concert, and their effects are exacerbated by adverse social and economic conditions – particularly conflict, poverty and malnutrition. Read the fact file on children's environmental health RELATED LINKS Preventing disease through healthy environments: Towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease The global burden of disease: 2004 update  World Health Statistics 2009 Global burden of disease and risk factors [pdf 2.90Mb] World Bank, World Health Organization, Fogarty International Center and National Institutes of Health, 2006.

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

Legislative Reform Initiative

Harmonizing National Legislation with International Human Rights Instruments

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While virtually every country in the world has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), children's rights are frequently not realised. One important aspect of creating an environment within which children's rights will be realised is the creation of an appropriate legislative framework which enshrines their rights. While this is not sufficient to guarantee their rights, and implementation of the law remains a major challenge around the world, getting laws and the mechanisms and institutions for their implementation right is one of the most essential steps to realising children's rights.

UNICEF's Legislative Reform Initiative (LRI) supports efforts for the realisation of the rights enshrined in the CRC and in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It recognises that legislative reform must go beyond the letter of law to address polices and programming in order to make the laws effective and enforceable. The LRI includes papers and tools which can inform legislative reform efforts and share global experience./.../