Rural China and the gender gap in early social-emotional development

Shanshan Li, Xiyuan Jia, Alexis Medina, Ann M. Weber and Yue Ma

Children and Youth Services Review, 2024, vol. 163, issue C

Abstract: Rural girls in China stay in school longer than boys and outperform them in many subjects. This gender gap suggests analogous disparities in early childhood development, a key factor in later educational outcomes. This study examines gender disparities in social-emotional development among 1,301 children aged 18–30 months in rural China. Results indicate that male children trail their female counterparts by 0.18 SD on average on the scale of standardized ASQ:SE score. A large share of the difference is driven by the bottom 10 % of children, where the magnitude of the gender gap (0.34 SD) is 1.9 times larger than at the median (0.19 SD). Demographic characteristics are uncorrelated with the gender gap in heterogeneity analysis, suggesting that the mechanisms underlying observed gender disparities are similar across rural Chinese households.

Keywords: Gender gap; School readiness; Social-emotional development; Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional; Quantile analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:163:y:2024:i:c:s019074092400361x

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107789

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