Trajectories of child cognitive development during ages 0–3 in rural Western China: prevalence, risk factors and links to preschool-age cognition

Table 6 Multivariate analysis of the association between characteristics and trajectory of child cognitive development from infancy to toddlerhood

Characteristic	Deteriorating		Improving
Characteristic	(1) β	(2) ME	(3) β	(4) ME
Child characteristics
Age	− 0.02 (0.02)	−0.01 (0.01)	− 0.03 (0.05)	−0.01 (0.02)
Male (1 = yes)	0.08 (0.08)	0.03 (0.03)	0.01 (0.19)	0.00 (0.06)
Premature (1 = yes)	−0.06 (0.21)	−0.02 (0.08)	0.38 (0.35)	0.12 (0.11)
Have siblings (1 = yes)	0.02 (0.11)	0.01 (0.04)	0.35 (0.22)	0.11 (0.07)
Household characteristics
Primary caregiver (1 = mother)	0.07 (0.09)	0.02 (0.03)	−0.34 (0.21)	−0.10 (0.07)
Maternal age (1 = more than 25 years old)	−0.25*** (0.09)	−0.09*** (0.03)	0.48** (0.22)	0.15** (0.07)
Maternal education level (1 = 12 years or higher)	−0.41*** (0.12)	−0.15*** (0.04)	0.75*** (0.25)	0.23*** (0.07)
Family asset index	−0.17*** (0.04)	−0.06*** (0.01)	0.32*** (0.09)	0.10*** (0.03)
County fixed effects	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Time fixed effects	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Observations	997	997	248	248

Models estimated in this table are defined in Eq. (3) in the manuscript. Column 1 presents coefficients and standard errors (in parentheses) from the probit regression. Column 2 presents marginal effects from the same probit regression, where 1 = “Deteriorating” and 0 = “Never” when child’s age is from 6 to 12 months (infancy) to 22 to 30 months (toddlerhood). The same multivariate analysis for “Improving” and “Persistent” are shown in Columns 3 and 4, where 1 = “Improving” and 0 = “Persistently delayed.” All regressions control for county fixed effects and time fixed effects. Data source is authors’ survey
**p < .05, ***p < .01

ISSN: 1471-2431