Abstract
Despite widespread utilization, research exploring associations between playgroup and child development is scarce. We analyzed a national data set measuring the holistic development of children aged 4 to 6 years who commenced school in Australia in 2015 (n = 104,767), the Australian Early Development Census, to explore developmental differences between children who did and did not attend playgroup before school. Children who attended playgroup had better development at school entry relative to those who had not attended playgroup, after adjustment for a range of confounding factors. These differences were observed across all five developmental domains and were universal to children from a range of backgrounds. Results support the need for future research to explore the causal effects of playgroup on children’s development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | American Educational Research Journal |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 12 Jun 2019 |
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Exploring associations between playgroup attendance and early childhood development at school entry in Australia : A cross-sectional population-level study. / Sincovich, Alanna; Gregory, Tess; Harman-Smith, Yasmin; Brinkman, Sally Anne.
In: American Educational Research Journal, 12.06.2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring associations between playgroup attendance and early childhood development at school entry in Australia
T2 - A cross-sectional population-level study
AU - Sincovich, Alanna
AU - Gregory, Tess
AU - Harman-Smith, Yasmin
AU - Brinkman, Sally Anne
PY - 2019/6/12
Y1 - 2019/6/12
N2 - Despite widespread utilization, research exploring associations between playgroup and child development is scarce. We analyzed a national data set measuring the holistic development of children aged 4 to 6 years who commenced school in Australia in 2015 (n = 104,767), the Australian Early Development Census, to explore developmental differences between children who did and did not attend playgroup before school. Children who attended playgroup had better development at school entry relative to those who had not attended playgroup, after adjustment for a range of confounding factors. These differences were observed across all five developmental domains and were universal to children from a range of backgrounds. Results support the need for future research to explore the causal effects of playgroup on children’s development.
AB - Despite widespread utilization, research exploring associations between playgroup and child development is scarce. We analyzed a national data set measuring the holistic development of children aged 4 to 6 years who commenced school in Australia in 2015 (n = 104,767), the Australian Early Development Census, to explore developmental differences between children who did and did not attend playgroup before school. Children who attended playgroup had better development at school entry relative to those who had not attended playgroup, after adjustment for a range of confounding factors. These differences were observed across all five developmental domains and were universal to children from a range of backgrounds. Results support the need for future research to explore the causal effects of playgroup on children’s development.
KW - Australian Early Development Census (AEDC)
KW - child development
KW - early childhood education
KW - Early Development Instrument (EDI)
KW - playgroup
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067790824&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3102/0002831219854369
DO - 10.3102/0002831219854369
M3 - Article
JO - American Educational Research Journal
JF - American Educational Research Journal
SN - 0002-8312
ER -