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

项目概要： 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， 除非营养不良问题在最初的1,000天内得到解决，否则它将长期存在，几乎不可逆转。 后果在许多低收入国家，气候变化也相当大， 对儿童发展的影响，以及长期的后果。然而，几乎没有基于人口的证据 关于生命早期营养不良和气候变化导致青少年贫困的机制， 成年后的结果，以及是否可以减轻早期生活的缺陷。该项目将调查潜在的影响 营养不良和气候变化对一系列基本认知技能（FCS）的影响，重要的是， 执行功能（EF），在整个童年和青春期保持可塑性。EF越来越多地 被发现是儿童发展的一个关键领域，也是教育成功的一个关键预测因素， 与非认知技能发展和危险行为相关。然而，大多数证据来自高- 收入国家（HICs），很少有证据表明FCS的决定因素和影响， 中低收入国家，条件差异很大（例如，幼年营养不良和气候变化较大）。的 具体目的（SA）是调查：（SA 1）儿童晚期FCS的决定因素，包括（SA 1a）早期- 生命营养;（SA 1b）气候变化;（SA 1c）社会政策;（SA 2）儿童晚期FCS的影响 青少年的教育成就，社会情感能力和危险行为。这一切成功都 具体目标将审查男孩与女孩的差异。该项目将使用一组FCS上的唯一数据 在埃塞俄比亚和秘鲁收集的措施，作为最大的多国队列"年轻生命研究“的一部分， 关于中低收入国家儿童贫困和福祉的数据集。YLS数据是纵向的和可比较的 在非常不同的国家收集的数据使这些数据非常适合于 检查早期生活缺陷对5岁、8岁、12岁时测量的各种结果的长期影响， 15年2013年收集的数据涉及埃塞俄比亚和秘鲁的约4,000名儿童以及他们的近2,000名儿童。 兄弟姐妹包括RACER（认知和情绪调节快速评估），一种新型的触摸屏 计算机应用程序，旨在获得一组FCS的测量：工作记忆，抑制（两者都是） 这被认为是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。该分析对（1）做出了重大贡献。 更深入地了解生命早期营养、气候变化和其他事件如何影响FCS，（2）政策如何影响FCS， 干预措施可以通过在两种情况下影响EF来帮助减轻幼儿贫困的影响， 处于不同经济和社会发展阶段的国家，（3）儿童期晚的影响是什么 （4）评估在2010年进行类似数据收集和分析的价值， 在其他年龄段和其他低收入国家，可能包括其他易受影响的国家、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.