Article Text
Abstract
Background Literacy is championed as a pathway out of poverty, yet it is vulnerable to the risk circumstances it seeks to mitigate. This study explored the developmental circumstances that gave rise to stark inequalities in reading achievement in Australian children across 6 years of school.
Methods We used data from Growing up in Australia: the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children linked to Australia’s National Assessment Program-Literacy and Numeracy across school years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Latent class analysis and growth curve modelling (n=4983) were used to identify risk profiles for reading achievement for children (ages 8.2–15.2).
Results Four distinct profiles were identified: developmentally enabled profile (62% of children); sociodemographic risk profile (25% of children); child development risk profile (11% of children); and sociodemographic and child development (double disadvantage) risk profile (2% of children). Children with a developmentally enabled profile achieved the expected rate of growth of 1.0 year per year of school across years 3, 5, 7 and 9. By comparison, children with sociodemographic and/or child development risk profiles started behind their developmentally enabled peers, and lost ground over time.
Discussion Across 6 years of school, multiple risk-exposed children lagged behind low risk-exposed children in the order of years of lost gains in reading achievement. The results point to the complex contexts of educational disadvantage and the need for cross-cutting social, health and education policies and coordinated multiagency intervention efforts to break the cycle of educational disadvantage.
- education
- inequalities
- life course epidemiology
- longitudinal studies
- public health
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Footnotes
Contributors CLT, SRZ and DC conceived the paper. CLT, SRZ and DC contributed to the study design. DC undertook the analyses. CLT, SRZ and DC contributed to the interpretation of the results and writing of the paper. CLT, SRZ and DC approved the final manuscript.
Funding This research was funded by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (CE140100027).
Disclaimer The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to DSS, AIFS, ABS or ACARA.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Not required.
Ethics approval The study has ethics approval from the Australian Institute of Family Studies Ethics Committee.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data sharing statement LSAC data are publicly available. Users may apply for an individual or organisational licence. Information about data access is available at http://www.growingupinaustralia.gov.au/data/dataaccessmenu.html. There is a fee for the licences and release of data.