Exploring factors that influence early cognitive and social and emotional development in rural Northern Ghana

– By Britta Augsburg

Early cognitive and social and emotional development is crucial for lifelong success. During the pre-school years, there is rapid expansion in children’s cognitive ability – in their knowledge, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and memory skills, all of which are critical for success in school, and beyond. Meanwhile, early social and emotional development (the ability to react to and interact with your social environment) quickly accelerates during the early years, and strongly predicts adult wellbeing and achievement. Early-onset problem behaviours have been associated with academic underachievement and an increased risk of school dropout.

Identifying the main factors that affect cognitive skills has been a focus of contemporary developmental science, and social and emotional development has also been extensively researched, with the early years receiving particular attention. Such research has formed the basis for evidence-based interventions and programmes aimed at improving child development outcomes. However, studies have almost exclusively concentrated on high-income countries (HICs) – yet in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across the world, 250 million children under the age of five are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential because of poverty and stunting. Meanwhile, millions of young children are not reaching their full potential due to inadequate nutrition and a lack of stimulating environments, learning, and nurturing care.  

For example, children born in Ghana today are projected to reach, on average, only 45% of their productivity potential by the age of 18. The World Bank suggests this is being driven by low academic achievement, which can be linked to child development and learning. Levels of at-home cognitive stimulation in Ghana are relatively low; one study showed that only 33.1% of children were read to in the three days prior to data collection, versus an average of 54.1% in all developing countries. It is estimated that a third of 3-4-year-olds in Ghana do not meet the thresholds for school readiness indicators.

It should not be assumed that the available evidence on child development from HICs is relevant for LMICs, or that it can be extrapolated to inform interventions in these settings. Thrive’s work in Ghana centres on generating robust evidence that is relevant for the country context and that will assist the government in its aim to deliver high-quality early childhood development programmes and interventions.

Child development in rural Northern Ghana

One of our recent studies aimed to identify which (malleable) factors affect the cognitive ability and social and emotional development of pre-school-age children in rural Northern Ghana. Children in this area are exposed to high levels of poverty (most families live on less than US$2 per day, and, according to UNICEF, 50.4% are estimated to be poor, compared to 13.6% nationally). Parental involvement with learning activities, including play, is low; in one study, only 13% of primary caregivers reported that someone in the household had played with their 3-4-year-old child in the previous three days. In addition, the use of violent discipline is high. Population-level estimates (Ghana Statistical Service, 2011) indicate that about 50% of Ghanaian caregivers believe that physical punishment is necessary for proper child rearing. The vast majority of children aged 2-14 years had experienced physically and/or verbally violent discipline, with 73% experiencing mild physical punishment and 14% severe physical punishment.

Our study sample was representative of children going to government kindergarten in Northern Ghana. We used data from 54 districts, comprising 1,676 biological mother-child pairs, with the children being aged 3.5 to 6.5 years. The research included child assessments, measurements of children’s weight and height, observations of mother-child interactions, and surveys carried out with the mothers in 2022-2023 as part of previous research.

Assessing cognitive and social and emotional development

To assess cognition, we focused ona child’s ability to read, write and communicate linguistic information, as well as their mathematical thinking, working memory and impulse control. The study of social and emotional characteristics in childhood is vast and varied; we chose to limit this element of the study to children’s prosocial skills (which enable children to build positive relationships and engage productively with their families and communities) and children’s behaviour problems and difficulties (both internal, such as anxiety, and external, including aggression).

We adapted a bioecological theoretical framework used in developmental science to explore multiple factors associated with cognitive and social and emotional development. The factors (correlates) were grouped into three sets (or ‘blocks’): children’s health (including weight and height for age); mothers’ characteristics (including cognitive skills, wellbeing, relationship conflict, closeness to the child, teaching and discipline practices, and time use during a typical day); and the home learning environment (including the presence of stimulating/play activities and learning materials such as toys and books).

The association between many of the correlates and outcomes were as expected, with positive factors generally correlating with higher cognitive and social and emotional skills, and negative factors being negatively related. For example, a non-violent approach is positively related to cognition, and a violent approach is negatively related.

Cognition

Cognitive development was positively associated with child health/height for age (aligning with existing research) and the availability of learning materials. Our results suggest there is a positive relation between children’s cognitive development and several maternal factors, including the mother having higher cognitive ability and higher self-esteem, a positive approach to teaching (however, interestingly, a negative approach did not correlate with lower skills), and time to allocate to leisure and sleep (spending an additional hour on leisure and/or sleep, rather than paid work, is positively associated with children’s cognition). Specifically, the better the mother’s attention and short-term working memory, the better the child’s cognitive development. Many variables had an insignificant relationship with cognition, including the mother’s mental health and the child experiencing stimulating activities in the previous three days.

Prosocial skills and problem behaviours

We found, importantly, that not all factors impacted both prosocial skills and problem behaviours. For example, a mother’s cognitive skills and having a non-violent approach to discipline and the ability to spend more time on leisure or sleep rather than paid work were positive correlates of children’s prosocial skills, but none of them were associated with children’s problem behaviours. Maternal mental health problems, low self-esteem, a distant mother-child relationship, and a violent approach to discipline were correlated with children’s problem behaviours, but not with their prosocial skills.

The only correlate found to be relevant to cognitive development, prosocial skills and problem behaviours was a mother-child relationship characterised by conflict. It was negatively related to all three.

This research aimed to increase the evidence base on child development in LMIC settings. It highlights that various malleable factors – whether related to children, mothers, mother-child relationships, or households – can have different impacts on early cognitive and social and emotional development, and that specific parental activities are associated with specific aspects of child development, which is in line with existing evidence and theories on specificity. The study suggests that, in similar contexts to rural Northern Ghana at least, interventions may need to target specific maternal behaviours and family dynamics to enhance and improve children’s outcomes and lifelong potential.

The research findings have been published in two separate Thrive working papers: Cognition in Young Children in a Low-Income Rural Setting: Prominent Correlates in Sub-Saharan Ghanaian Preschoolers and Prominent Correlates of Social and Emotional Development in Young Children in Rural Ghana.