Early childhood development and its association with maternal parity.
M Mofizul Islam, Md Nuruzzaman Khan
PMID 35384014WHAT IT FOUND
In Bangladesh, each additional child a mother had was associated with a 5% lower odds of her 3- or 4-year-old being developmentally on track.
Literacy and numeracy were the worst-performing domains, with 71% of children falling behind.
Key findings
01For every additional child, the odds of a 3- or 4-year-old being developmentally on track were reduced by 5%.
02Literacy and numeracy was the worst-performing developmental domain, with 71% of children not on track.
03Attendance at early childhood education programmes and higher parental stimulation scores were significantly associated with children being developmentally on track.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it can only show an association between maternal parity and development, not cause and effect. The authors could not account for genetic or biological factors that influence child development. There may be residual confounding from unmeasured variables. The finding that rural children outperformed urban children may be partly due to measurement bias, as less-educated rural mothers might have misclassified their children's literacy skills.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that having more children directly causes developmental delay. This is an observational study showing an association, and the effect could be driven by unmeasured factors such as resource dilution or social determinants of health rather than parity itself.