Early socioeconomic deprivation, the preschool home learning environment, and language and literacy skills in ethnically diverse school children

Abstract

Children with more exposure to socioeconomic deprivation have lower language and literacy. Minority ethnic children often experience more deprivation but are under‐represented in the research literature. We examined socioeconomic deprivation (during pregnancy), home learning environment (2 years), and language and literacy at school entry (4–5 years) and primary school (6–7 years) in a diverse UK cohort ( N  = 7064). Using latent structural equation modelling, we identified a persistent negative effect of deprivation on school language and literacy. Despite higher deprivation, being read to less often and fewer learning resources during preschool, children of Pakistani ethnicity had school language and literacy largely on par with White British children and children of other ethnicities. Deprivation effects were not mediated by home learning environment; literacy in primary school was partially mediated by school‐entry language and literacy. There may be additional factors within minority ethnic families that help mitigate impacts of socioeconomic deprivation, and standard home learning environment measures may not fully capture experiences of Pakistani ethnicity children.