Desenvolvimento cognitivo e motor de crianças nos primeiros anos de vida e qualidade do contexto ambiental: uma análise relacional

Abstract

The environmental context plays an important role in child development. Thus, living in poverty can have negative effects on the ontogeny, especially during the first years of life. Therefore, this thesis aimed to investigate the influence of home, daycare and neighborhood environments in cognitive and motor development of young children living in cities of Jequitinhonha Valley, one of the regions with the worst socioeconomic indicators of Brazil. We conducted cross-sectional study, predictive correlational through statistical analysis of structural equation modeling. Participants were 147 children 24-36 months of age attending public daycares placed in two cities of Jequitinhonha Valley. The tools used were Bayley Scales of Infant Development and Toddler for the assessment of child development, the HOME Inventory for the quality of the home environment and the Infant/ Toddler Environment Rating Scale to assess the daycare environment. A questionnaire about the quality of the neighborhood was developed from the literature. To characterize the study population was made a questionnaire of sociodemographic status and history of children's birth and health. The results indicated that few children participating were in extreme poverty, although belonging to lower economic strata. About one third presented 3-5 socioeconomic risks. About the quality of the environment, more than half of the children live in environments at risk for child development and quality of childcare environments ranged from inadequate to minimally adequate. Regarding the quality of the neighborhood, it was observed that families have a basic infrastructure, services and formal network support. However, the informal support networks among neighbors for child care are limited and missing spaces for outdoor play. The structural equation modeling revealed that the quality of ecological environments showed no impact on motor development. For cognitive development, 25% of its variations were explained by socioeconomic index, quality of neighborhood, home and daycare. However, only the quality of the house (ß 0.42) and childcare (ß 0.30) had a direct impact, positive and statistically significant. The quality of the neighborhood (ß 0.13) and the socioeconomic index (ß -0.16) also exerted a statistically significant influence, but of lesser magnitude and indirectly, through the home. The analysis of the home-childcare mesosystem has shown that a childcare of best quality offset an environment of inadequate home quality and vice versa, positively influencing the cognitive development of children. It is concluded that the environmental context was not able to predict the motor, but only cognitive development of children. The quality of the ecological environment has been under the influence of socioeconomic level. The quality of the home environment was the one who exerted a greater influence on the cognitive development of children, however, childcare of best quality also impacted positively, exerting compensatory role when the homes were of low quality. So, is important public policies aimed at improving the quality of public childcare. In addition, children would benefit from interventions in the others ecological environments, as programs for higher education of the parents and the creation of living spaces in the neighborhood.