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Household Socioeconomic Status and Child Socioemotional in Ghana.

David Adumbire, Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS)
Stan Akembula, Mainstream Renewable Energy

Early childhood development forms the foundation for a productive adult life and to the progress of every nation. The socioemotional domain of development is the bedrock of this foundation. The study examined the influence of socioeconomic status of households, social relations and quality of home environment on the socioemotional outcomes of children in Ghana. The MICS 2011 of Ghana is the main source of data for the study. The study adopted the Ecological Systems Theory of child development as its theoretical foundation. Multivariate analyses found the availability of children’s books, engaging children in social activities, leaving children with other children, age and sex of child, and region of residence to be significant predictors of socioemotional development. Wealth status of households interestingly was found not to significantly predict child’s socioemotional development. Female children were more likelihood to have positive socioemotional development outlook. Policy efforts toward addressing the socioemotional development of children in Ghana especially in the era of covid-19, should be regionalized while social activities must be encouraged in homes and schools. Further research work on the measures of socioemotional development, social relations and home environment is required to have uniformity in their measurement.

Keywords: Life course analysis, Children and youth

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 116. Inequalities, Health and Wellbeing