Gender Differences in Early Child Development: Evidence from Large-Scale Studies of Very Young Children in Nine Countries

Rosangela Bando, Florencia Lopez-Boo, Lia Fernald, Paul Gertler and Sarah Reynolds
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Florencia Lopez-Boo: Inter-American Development Bank
Lia Fernald: University of California
Paul Gertler: University of California, Haas School of Business, University of California
Sarah Reynolds: University of California
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Florencia Lopez Boo

Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, 2024, vol. 7, issue 2, No 2, 82-92

Abstract: Abstract Some evidence suggests that there are significant gender gaps in early child development in low- and middle-income countries, with girls generally outperforming boys. However, few studies have tested for the existence of such gaps at a large scale. Our objective is to examine gender disparities in early child development in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Peru, Senegal, and Uruguay, with 26,055 children aged 7 to 48 months. We estimate gaps using cross-sectional studies with language, socioemotional, and motor skills development assessments. Consistent with small-sample findings, the data shows girls consistently outperformed boys on language tests (0.14 standard deviations) and socioemotional development (0.17 standard deviations), with differences consistent across all nine countries. There were no systematic differences by gender for motor development. We explored how family characteristics, health investments, or parent–child interactions influenced the gap. We did not find evidence that variation on these characteristics across children explained the gap. Our findings suggest that gender gaps in language and socioemotional development emerge very early in life.

Keywords: Gender gaps; Child development; Cognitive skills; Language development; Socioemotional development; Motor skills (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s41996-023-00131-1

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