Quality of the home,daycare and neighborhood environment and the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children in early childhood: A mediation analysis

The objective of this study was to investigate how socioeconomic factors and the quality of ecological environments affect motor and cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children. This is a cross-sectional, predictive and correlational study using structural equation modeling to analyze data on 147 economic disadvantage children of 24–36 months attending public daycare. The Bayley-III Scales, the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment Inventory, the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition, a socioeconomic index and a specifically designed questionnaire on neighborhood quality were applied. The ecological environments did not affect motor development, but 25 % of variations in cognitive development were explained by socioeconomic differences and differences in the quality of the neighborhood, home and daycare. However, only the quality of the home and daycare had a direct impact, with the other factors affecting the outcome indirectly and to a lesser extent. In conclusion, this study investigated the association between the ecological contexts of economically disadvantaged children and their cognitive and motor development. The findings showed that the environmental context had effect on cognitive development. The home was the environment that exerted the most significant direct effect, followed by daycare and, indirectly and to a lesser extent, the neighborhood. Therefore, the coordination of public policies between health, education and social assistance sectors, aiming at the three ecological environments is important in order to promote the cognitive development of economically disadvantaged children.     

How to separate coordinate and categorical spatial relation components in integrated spatial representations: A new methodology for analysing sketch maps

Spatial relations between landmarks can be represented by means of categories and coordinates. In the present research, this paradigm was applied to sketch maps based on information acquired in goal-directed behaviour of exploration of a university campus area. The first aim was to investigate whether categorical and coordinate information can be considered conceptually independent in sketch maps. The second aim was to assess which kind of distance measure served better to represent coordinate information in the present case study, and finally to assess the factorial structure of coordinate and categorical data. Analytic methodology as well as statistical analysis were found to confirm that separating coordinate and categorical components was formally as well as empirically appropriate. A series of confirmatory factor analyses showed the best fit for the model with two correlated components, as well as an acceptable reliability of measures emerged. The two components were moderately correlated. Moreover, the adoption of Manhattan distance seemed to be the most effective method to represent coordinate spatial relations in spatial sketch maps of areas acquired through navigation.