Foundational cognitive skills in developing countries: early-life nutritional, climatic and policy determinants and impacts on adolescent education, socio-emotional competencies and risky behaviors

项目总结： 早期营养不良在低收入和中等收入国家非常普遍，人们普遍认为 除非在最初的1000天内解决营养不良问题，否则它将持续很长时间，而且几乎不可逆转 后果。气候变化在许多LMIC中也是相当大的，并被广泛认为是 对儿童发展的影响，具有长期后果。然而，几乎没有基于人口的证据。 关于早期营养不良和气候变化导致更贫穷的青少年和 成年人的结局以及早期生活缺陷是否可能得到缓解。该项目将调查潜在的影响 营养不良和气候变化对一套基本认知技能(FCS)的影响，重要的包括 执行功能(EF)，在整个童年和青春期保持延展性。EF越来越多地拥有 被发现是儿童发展的关键领域，也是教育成功的关键预测因素，可能 与非认知技能发展和危险行为相关。然而，大多数证据来自于高- 低收入国家(高收入国家)，关于低收入国家的决定因素和影响的证据很少。 条件有很大不同的小岛屿发展中国家(例如，早期营养不良和气候变化较大)。这个 具体目的(SA)是调查：(SA1)儿童后期FCS的决定因素，包括(SA1a)早期- 生命营养；(SA1b)气候变化；(SA1c)社会政策；以及(SA2)儿童早期统计框架的影响 青春期教育成就、社会情绪能力和危险行为。这其中的每一个 《特定目标》将考察男孩和女孩之间的差异。该项目将使用一组功能界别的独特数据 在埃塞俄比亚和秘鲁收集的措施，作为最大的多国队列青年生命研究(YLS)的一部分 关于小岛屿发展中国家儿童贫困和福祉的数据集。YLS的数据是纵向的和可比较的 在非常不同的国家收集的测量数据使这些数据非常适合 研究早期生活缺陷对5岁、8岁、12岁和12岁的各种结局的长期影响 15年。2013年在埃塞俄比亚和秘鲁收集的约4,000名儿童和约2,000名儿童的直接数据 兄弟姐妹包括RACER(认知和情绪调节快速评估)，一款新型触摸屏 设计用来获得一组FCS测量的计算机应用程序：工作记忆、抑制(两者都有 被认为是EF)、陈述性记忆和内隐学习。这些数据是唯一的，很少从 LMIC，以前不适用于大样本。这一分析有望为(1)做出重大贡献 更深入地了解早期营养、气候变化和其他事件如何影响FCS，(2)如何制定政策 干预措施可以通过在两种情况下影响EF来帮助减轻儿童早期贫困的影响 处于非常不同的经济和社会发展阶段的国家，(3)儿童后期有什么影响 FCS对青少年结果的影响，以及(4)评估在以下方面进行类似数据收集和分析的价值 在其他年龄段和其他小岛屿发展中国家，可能包括其他国际最低收入国家、印度和越南。

PROJECT SUMMARY: Early undernutrition is highly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and it is widely claimed that unless undernutrition is addressed in the first 1,000 days, it has long-lasting and almost irreversible consequences. Climatic variation also is considerable in many LMICs and widely claimed to have substantial impacts on child development, with long-run consequences. However, there is little population-based evidence about mechanisms through which early-life undernutrition and climatic variations lead to poorer adolescent and adult outcomes and whether early-life deficits may be mitigated. This project will investigate the potential impact of undernutrition and climatic variations on a set of foundational cognitive skills (FCS), importantly including executive function (EF), which remains malleable throughout childhood and adolescence. EF increasingly has been found to be a key domain of child development and a key predictor of educational success and possibly correlated with non-cognitive skills development and risky behaviors. However, most evidence comes from high- income countries (HICs) and there is very little evidence about the determinants of and the impacts of FCS in LMICs, where conditions are much different (e.g. greater early-life undernutrition and climatic variations). The Specific Aims (SA) are to investigate: (SA1) the determinants of FCS in late childhood, including (SA1a) early- life nutrition; (SA1b) climatic variations; and (SA1c) social policies; and (SA2) the impacts of late childhood FCS on adolescent educational achievements, socio-emotional competencies and risky behaviors. Each of these specific aims will examine differences for boys versus girls. The project will use unique data on a set of FCS measures collected in Ethiopia and Peru as part of the Young Lives Study (YLS), the largest multi-country cohort dataset on childhood poverty and wellbeing in LMICs. That the YLS data are longitudinal and comparable measures have been collected across very different countries make these data uniquely well-suited for examination of longer-term impacts of early-life deficits on a variety of outcomes measured at ages 5,8,12 and 15 years. The data collected in 2013 for ~4,000 children in Ethiopia and Peru and ~2,000 of their immediate siblings included RACER (Rapid Assessment of Cognitive and Emotional Regulation), a novel touch-screen computer application designed to obtain measurements of a set of FCS: working memory, inhibition (both of which are considered EF), declarative memory and implicit learning. These data are unique, rarely available from LMICs and not previously available for large samples. The analysis promises significant contributions for (1) deeper understanding of how early-life nutrition, climatic variations and other events affect FCS, (2) how policy interventions can help mitigate the effects of early childhood poverty through affecting EF in contexts of two countries at very different stages of economic and social development, (3) what are the impacts of late childhood FCS on adolescent outcomes, and (4) assessing the value of undertaking similar data collection and analysis at other ages and in other LMICs, possibly including the other YLS countries, India and Viet Nam.