Child Development - Article Example

on Child development Ziol-Guest, K. M. & McKenna, C. C. . Early Childhood housing instability andschool readiness. Child development. (85) 1, pp. 103-113.INTRODUCTIONMost families like moving from one place to the other and according to recent reports in the year 2002, about 10.1 % of children had lived in their current home for less than six months. Studies have indicated that there is a relationship between housing instability and a wide range of child outcomes such as poor achievement in school, poor social and emotional development.

Thus, the main objective of this study was to” determine the relation between housing instability and school readiness among national samples of five year old children.” P. 104.METHODParticipantsAn interview involving fathers and mothers was carried out at the hospital after the birth of a child. In addition, there were also interviewed by phone when the child was one, two, and five years old. An additional research was carried out on 3,000 homes. During this interview, the child development and home environment was assessed.

Procedure Language and literacy. “The children were administered Peabody picture vocabulary test III and the woodcock – Johnson letter word identification test for the five year old. “p. 104. In addition, behavioral problems. “Three checklist adapted from the child behavior checklist / 4-18 were generated based on responses to items in the five year in home assessment." P.104.ResultsResults showed that on language and literacy, children who had never moved (n=640) had a mean score of 94.

15 % with a standard error of 0.73. While children who had moved between 1-2 times (no 1365) had a mean score of 93.44 with a standard error of 0.48. Finally, those who had moved more than three times had 91.36 % with a standard error of 0.62. On behavioral problems, the results were 0.23 %, 0.24 %, and 0.31 % for those who had never moved, those who moved 1-2 times, and those who moved more than three times respectively. Regression results show performance of language and literacy is related to poverty and not movements from one place to the other.

However, it shows that the frequent movement is associated with poor behaviors.DISCUSSIONThe study complimented existing literature on the relationship between housing instability and children school readiness. However, the study did not explain why most families move from one place to another.