Background Child development is adversely affected by the socioeconomic status of the family and community. In view of the increasing socioeconomic disparity in Hong Kong in the past decade, this proposed study aims at investigating the existence, magnitude, pattern and manifestations of socioeconomic gradients in school readiness of preschool children, as well as interpreting how these are shaped and mediated through families, institutions and the wider communities. Objectives 1) To adapt and validate the Chinese Early Development Instrument (CEDI); 2) To investigate the socioeconomic gradients in school readiness of preschool children in relation to family SES, contextual effect, and family processes. Methods This study employs a cross-sectional research design comprising two stages. Stage one was a stand-alone pilot study to translate and validate the Chinese version of Early Development Instrument (CEDI). A total of 167 K3 children (4 kindergartens) from Hong Kong Island (HKI, the affluent district) and Yuen Long (YL, the disadvantaged district) were recruited. Stage two was the main study to examine socioeconomic gradients in school readiness. 567 K3 children of 21 kindergartens from YL and HKI were recruited. Four hypotheses regarding socio-economic gradients in terms of existence, magnitude, pattern, and mediating mechanism were tested using two-level linear models. Results CEDI showed adequate internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .70 to .95. The concurrent validity of CEDI was established using The Pearson correlations between CEDI and Hong Kong Early Child Development Scale (HKECDS), locally developed direct assessment, ranged from .39 to .66 with statistical significance (p<.05). The test-retest reliability of CEDI was analyzed, and the kappa coefficient was .89, demonstrating a good stability of CEDI. In the main study, children from YL have a significantly lower total CEDI domain score of emotional maturity (p= .025) and language and cognitive development (p= .01) than their counterparts from HKI. Girls scored significant higher on the total CEDI scores (mean= 44.5, sd= 4.80) than their male counterparts (mean=42.52, sd=6.10), and significantly less proportion of girls than boys were classified as developmentally vulnerable in at least one CEDI domains (26.0% girls vs. 35.8% boys, p=0.12). Hypothesis testing regarding existence of socioeconomic gradient by multi-level modeling suggested a significant association between the overall developmental outcomes of children and family SES index. Testing of kindergarten’s contextual effect showed that kindergarten level variables (annual school fees, teacher education background and working experience) accounted for significant proportion of variance in the total CEDI score. Additionally, our results supported the mediating effect of family processes (i.e., frequency of parent-child interactions and management of child digital use at home) in explaining socioeconomic gradients in child developmental outcomes. Conclusions CEDI is a psychometric sound measurement tool for early child development and assessing school readiness in Chinese society. Using CEDI, the evidence gathered from the main study demonstrated the existence of socioeconomic gradient with a significant association between the developmental outcomes of children and family SES, and highlighted the mediating effects from kindergarten and family levels, which are potentially modifiable to bridge the gap between the rich and poor. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

A research report presented to the Faculty of Humanities (School of Education) / This study explored Grade 3 and 4 learners’ experiences of the Foundation Phase Life Skills curriculum in one urban ex-model C school. The aims of this research were to understand learners’ perceptions of the importance of being taught Life Skills and to examine their perspectives of the applicability of Life Skills in their lives. The research focused on what learners’ understanding of the Life Skills curriculum is, to what extent they think it is relevant to their lives and what their experiences revealed about the curriculum. This was done to address the limited research available in South Africa on learners’ experiences of the Life Skills curriculum. This research was conducted with children because they are thinking, agentic beings who are capable of expressing their views of the world and should be heard. It took place in an ex model C school located in an upper middle class suburb of Johannesburg. Considering that the study sought to understand learners’ experiences, a qualitative research approach was used. The data were collected from a total of 15 learners by conducting four semi-structured focus group interviews, each interview comprised of 4 boys and 4 girls at a time. In order to analyse the data thematic content analysis was done in order to identify themes. From the analysis, themes were identified and findings from these revealed that children thought the Life Skills curriculum was important and helped them develop skills for their lives. They were able to identify topics that interested them or affected them, with safety being a major concern. They also showed an awareness of what it means to be socially responsible in their interactions with others. It is clear that teachers need to be more aware of how the curriculum supports children's everyday needs. More research may need to be done with township, rural and/ or private schools to further understand Foundation Phase learners’ experiences with the Life Skills Curriculum. / NG (2020)