Early Childhood Characteristics and School Readiness: The Importance of Social Support for Families

The aim of this 18th edition of Portraits and Pathways, in continuity with No. 14 in the series (Desrosiers, Tétreault and Boivin, 2012), is to provide some answers to the following questions:

• What child, family, neighbourhood and social characteristics are associated with vulnerability in one or another aspects of children’s development when they enter the educational system?
• What is the contribution of social support for parents in the early, crucial years of their children’s development?

Based on data from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD), we examine to what degree children’s vulnerability at school entry in one or another domains of their development is associated with their environment, specifically the support their parents received during the pre-school period. We also examine the association between the number of risk factors in the children and their developmental status at the time they enter the education system.