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Background: A wealth of evidence supports the important role high‐quality parent–child interactions play in children's early language acquisition. However, the impact on later language outcomes remains unclear. Aims: To examine the associations between responsive parental behaviours across the early years and child language outcomes at age 7 years with families from an Australian longitudinal cohort study (N = 1148, 50% female). Methods & Procedures: At child ages 12, 24 and 36 months, parents completed a self‐report measure of responsive parental behaviours. Child language was directly assessed at age 7 using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th edition (CELF‐4), Australian Standardisation. Linear regression was used to examine associations between responsive parental behaviours from 12 to 36 months (consistently high, inconsistent and consistently low responsive parental behaviours at the three time points) and language scores at age 7 years. Adjusted models were run, including the following potential confounders: child sex; birth weight; birth order; maternal education; socio‐economic disadvantage; non‐English‐speaking background; family history of speech–language problems; mother's vocabulary score; maternal mental health score; and mother's age at birth of child. A final adjusted model was run, including the potential confounder variables as well as adjusting for children's earlier language skills. Outcomes & Results: Linear regression results showed children with parents who rated high on responsive parental behaviours at all three time points had higher mean language scores at age 7 than children whose parents reported low responsive parental behaviours across early childhood. This association attenuated after adjusting for earlier child language skills. Conclusions & Implications: Findings support the consistent use of responsive parental behaviours across the very early years of childhood to support long‐term language outcomes. Findings also suggest that models of surveillance and support which monitor and assist families at multiple time‐points over the early years are likely to be most effective for preventing ongoing language difficulties. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject: There is extensive evidence consistently demonstrating the important contribution of aspects of parent–child interaction, specifically responsive parental behaviours, to children's language development. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge: Understanding the cumulative benefit of responsive parent–child interactions across the very early years may help to inform preventive interventions and service delivery models for supporting young children's language development. This study demonstrates in a large, population‐based cohort the contribution of consistency of responsive parental behaviours during infancy and toddlerhood to school‐age language outcomes, accounting for other child, family and environmental factors. Capturing regular parent behaviours via self‐report during the early years may be a more efficient and less costly method than parent–child interaction observations to monitor the home language‐learning environment during routine developmental checks. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: Findings support the need for surveillance of children and families in the early years, ensuring that intervention occurs when families need it most, that is, support is responsive to changing needs and that nuanced advice and support strategies are provided to activate positive developmental cascades. Capturing both parent behaviours and child language may assist clinicians to identify those families who may benefit from parent–child interaction intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Difficulties in language development are related to social and emotional problems, lower academic outcomes, and lower quality of life from childhood to adolescence. These grave consequences might be significantly reduced by timely identification and professional support. The introduction of systematic screening for language delay (LD) in 3‐year‐old children in Hungary was based on the recent adaptation of the MacArthur–Bates CDI‐III (HCDI‐III). Aims: To explore the relevant psychometric properties of the HCDI‐III; to identify factors characteristic of the families and children influencing language development at the age group under investigation; and to evaluate the adequacy of the tool for the purpose of screening LD in kindergarten at the age of 3 years. Methods & Procedures: The norming study of the HCDI‐III was conducted in a collaborative research project with the Metropolitan Pedagogical Services in Budapest. HCDI‐III parent report forms along with a demographic survey form were distributed to parents of all Hungarian‐speaking children between the ages of 2;0 and 4;2 without special education needs. The normative sample comprised data from 1424 children aged 2;0–4;2 with 51.1% boys and 48.9% girls. The data set contained information including language skills, basic demographics, birth conditions, health issues and socio‐economic status (SES). Outcomes & Results: In the HCDI‐III form, six outcome variables were created to cover the domains of expressive vocabulary, morphosyntax and language use. Statistical analyses revealed appropriate psychometric properties of five outcome variables that showed a normal distribution and were strongly correlated to age. Outcomes of girls were slightly (but significantly) higher on scales corresponding to vocabulary, syntax, language use and productivity. Most variables were highly correlated with one another even with age partialled out. Multiple regression analyses revealed significant effect of age, gender and parental education on all main outcome variables. Neither one of the other eight predictors, including familial and birth‐related factors, affected linguistic outcomes in our sample. Conclusions & Implications: The results are consistent with the majority of Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) studies, and support the psychometric eligibility of the instrument for screening purposes between 30 and 50 months. As certain regions of Hungary are characterised by a high prevalence of low‐SES families, more research is needed to adapt the screening procedure and subsequent measures to their needs. What this paper adds: What is already known on the subject: Difficulties in language development are related to lower social and academic outcomes and lower quality of life from childhood to adolescence. These grave consequences might be significantly reduced by timely identification and professional support. Structured parent report forms such as the MacArthur–Bates CDI are widely accepted methods for screening children with LD. What this paper adds to existing knowledge: This study reports the Hungarian adaptation and norming of the CDI‐III form. Statistical analyses revealed appropriate psychometric properties of most of its sections. Language outcomes were affected by age, gender and parental education on all main outcome variables in children between 2 and 4 years of age. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?: The results support the psychometric eligibility of the HCDI‐III instrument for screening purposes. The introduction of the screening procedure in clinical practice is expected to improve early support of children with language difficulties and reduce risks of developmental problems related to language disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by the growing prominence of fertility incentivisation and long‐term child development in European family policymaking, this paper examines the distribution of financial support for parents over the course of childhood and between birth orders in Europe. We use the term 'older‐oriented age bias' to refer to support that is more generous for older children and the term 'younger‐oriented age bias' for more generous support for younger children. Similarly, we refer to distribution patterns tilted towards later birth orders as 'later‐oriented parity bias' and to those that favour earlier birth orders as 'earlier‐oriented parity bias'. Based on a list of four classical policy functions of financial support for parents (child cost compensation, fertility incentivisation, child poverty reduction, and child development), we formulate six (sets of) hypotheses for the age and parity distribution of financial support for parents. To assess these distribution patterns, we examine monthly financial support (allowance‐ and tax‐based) for the first four birth orders at child ages 2, 9, and 17 in low‐income and middle‐income households across 28 European countries as of January 2021. We find that European welfare states typically provide more generous support for younger children, while the support distribution in terms of birth orders depends on pre‐support household income. We also find considerable cross‐country heterogeneity, with fertility incentivisation and (especially) child development being reflected by more countries than child cost compensation and poverty reduction. Our analysis sheds light on previously underexplored trends and implications in the design of financial support for parents in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Atopic dermatitis and food allergy are two frequently concomitant manifestations of the presence of atopy. A substantial number of studies have been published on the association of birth order and sibship size (number of siblings) with atopic dermatitis, food allergy, and atopy. The present work is the first systematic synthesis of the existing literature on this topic. Methods: Fifteen databases were searched. Screening, data extraction, and quality assessment were performed by independent pairs. Comparable numerical data were statistically synthesized using random‐effects robust variance estimation. Results: In total, 114 studies were included out of 8819 papers obtained from database searches. Birth order ≥2 versus 1 was associated with lower risk of ever atopic dermatitis (pooled risk ratio [RR] 0.91, 95% CI 0.84–0.98), current food allergy (RR 0.77, 95% CI 0.66–0.90), and positive skin prick test (SPT) to common aeroallergens (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77–0.97). Sibship size ≥2 versus 1 was associated with decreased risk of current atopic dermatitis (RR 0.90, 95% CI 0.83–0.98), ever atopic dermatitis (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.86–0.97), and positive SPT to common aeroallergens (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.83–0.92). No putative associations were seen regarding atopy assessed through allergen‐specific immunoglobulin E with common allergens. Conclusion: The presence of siblings and being second‐born or later may decrease the lifetime risk of atopic dermatitis and food allergy, albeit marginally. Similar association was seen with SPT sensitization. However, significant protection was not found for IgE sensitization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We show that changes in birth order during the U.S. baby boom can explain a substantial share of the decline and recovery in college completion among cohorts born between 1946 and 1974. Combining birth order effects estimated using the Health and Retirement Survey and birth order data from Vital Statistics, we estimate that changes in birth order can explain about 20% of the decline in white male college completion rates among the 1946–60 cohorts, and about one third of the rebound among the 1960–74 cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Partnering behavior is central to understanding fertility. Influential concepts, including singlehood, serial monogamy, and multiple‐partner fertility, are frequently used to analyze partnering and childbearing dynamics. These concepts are evoked to understand individual and population‐level patterns but are mainly analyzed at the individual level. We propose a measure for gauging the interplay between partnerships and childbearing at the population level, namely cohort fertility rates (CFR) as the sum of births under various partnership contexts. Surprisingly, demographers rarely measure and do not have a clear picture of the extent to which childbearing in different partnership contexts contributes to completed fertility. We analyze Finnish register data to decompose CFR into births across union status, union order, and reproductive partner order. Contrary to the discourse of partnering in the Nordics, births within first unions to first reproductive partners account for about two‐thirds of CFR. Births in higher‐order unions to first reproductive partners account for one‐fifth. Single births and births with higher‐order reproductive partners have a modest impact. This ranking holds across sex and educational level. We argue that the proposed measures offer a novel appraisal of population‐level implications of partnerships and childbearing dynamics and provide an opportunity to understand cross‐country variation in fertility patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies explore the role of birth order in children's and adults' outcomes. This literature usually provides evidence of disadvantage of children with higher birth order. A narrow strand of this literature explores the association between birth order and old‐age mortality. This study re‐visits the birth‐order‐longevity relationship using US data. We employ Social Security Administration death records between the years 1988 and 2005 linked to the 1940 full‐count census and implement family fixed effect strategy to compare within‐sibling differences in the outcome. The findings suggest that later‐born children live, on average, 1–3 fewer months of life. The observed associations are exclusively concentrated among whites. However, the results do not point to significant heterogeneity based on family socioeconomic status, maternal education, and gender. Additional analyses suggest that higher birth order is associated with negative early educational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supportive family relationships may mitigate the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on young children's adjustment, but existing work is limited by its focus on within‐country variation and parental influences. Addressing these gaps, and drawing on reported buffering effects of older siblings on child mental health (Lawson and Mace, 2010), the current international study examined whether child adjustment problems were, on average, elevated by the pandemic and whether this buffering effect of older siblings would be maintained. In the first wave of the Covid19 pandemic (April to July 2020), 2516 parents of 3‐ to 8‐year‐old children living in Australia, China, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, and United States of America—six countries with contrasting governmental responses to the pandemic—completed an online survey about family experiences and relationships and child adjustment, as indexed by ratings on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ: R. Goodman, 1997). As expected, child SDQ total difficulty scores were elevated in all sites except Sweden (which notably did not enforce mass school closures). Compared to children without siblings, children with one or more older siblings showed fewer adjustment problems. Children from lone‐parent households displayed more adjustment problems, as did those whose parents reported increased sibling conflict. Finally, child adjustment problems were negatively associated with family socio‐economic status, but positively related to the indices of Covid‐19 family disruption and government stringency. We discuss these findings in relation to existing work on asymmetric effects of older versus younger siblings, and siblings as sources of support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how birth order affects intergenerational income mobility (IGM) in Japan, focusing on the difference in IGM between firstborn and later‐born children. The elasticities of sons' income with respect to fathers' income are separately estimated for sons who are firstborn and sons who are later born by family size using a two‐sample, two‐stage least squares approach. For sons born in 1926–1981, this study finds that in families with four or more children, intergenerational income elasticity (IGE) for firstborn sons is substantially and significantly higher than that for later‐born sons. However, no significant birth order effects are found in households with two or three children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wasting is one of the symptoms of malnutrition that has been connected to the deaths of malnourished children. This study was intended to explain the effect of socio‐demographic and economic factors on under‐5 wasting by evaluating their conditional effect across the distribution of weight‐for‐height Z (WHZ) scores using the quantile regression (QR) model. The weighted sample which included 13,680 children under 5 years was taken from the countrywide Egyptian DHS 2014 survey. The results depicted that about 2% of Egyptian children were severely wasted, with the prevalence of wasting being around 8%. It was discovered that across the WHZ distribution, the child's features, maternal characteristics, father's education, and social factors had significant but varied contributions in explaining the wasting status of under‐5 children. It was revealed that female children had a significant weight advantage, notably 0.21 standard deviation (SD) higher weight at the 95th quantile over their male counterparts. The WHZ score was also found to be significantly positively associated with both age and household's wealth status at the lower and upper tails of the WHZ distribution, respectively. Moreover, in comparison with children whose mothers were underweight, those whose mothers were normal or overweight had higher WHZ scores, with a 1.45 SD increase in WHZ scores at the 95th quantile for mothers who were normal weights. Furthermore, the children who were breastfed, whose mothers received antenatal care (ANC) services, and/or who had educated parents had an advantage in terms of WHZ scores than their counterparts. In addition, the children with higher birth order and/or who resided in urban areas had weight disadvantages compared to their counterparts. Therefore, in order to improve children's nutritional status and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the government and public–private owner organizations must work together at the community level focusing on vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate within‐family inequalities in human capital accumulation in India. Indicators of the children's current stock of human capital and of investment into their continued human capital accumulation are analyzed, distinguishing between time investments and pecuniary investment into school quality. We employ a within‐family model using sibship fixed effects, and find mostly negative birth order effects; that is, earlier‐born children are better off. However, for time investments there is a tendency toward more positive birth order effects, especially in poor and large families. This suggests that that opportunity cost of child time matters; in poor and large families the older, more productive, siblings often need to work. The most plausible explanation for negative birth order effects in general is resource dilution at an early age. Older siblings were only children at an early age, and therefore benefited from more parental resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The goal of the present research is to establish for the first time a hierarchy of sociodemographic factors according to their importance influencing birth seasonality. Methods: We used Vital Statistics data on all births registered in Spain in the period 2016–2019. Differences in the degree of seasonality between sociodemographic groups (defined by maternal age, maternal marital status, maternal education, birth order, maternal job qualification, maternal employment status, maternal location population size, and maternal country of birth) were first examined with descriptive techniques. Secondly, analysis through alternative Data Mining techniques determined the association between sociodemographic factors and birth seasonality and the factors importance rank. Results: Those factors related to maternal labor status (employment status, job qualification, and education) were found to be the most relevant influencing birth seasonality. It was found that the overall seasonal pattern in Spain was driven by lower skilled employed mothers, in contrast with not employed or high skilled employed mothers, who showed a different or weaker seasonality. Finally, we found that a change in the rhythm pattern has taken place in the last decades in Spain. Conclusions: Birth seasonality is to a large extent related to maternal employment status. Employed mothers, normally more affected by the seasonality of work calendar than the unemployed, show higher conception rates structured around holidays. This may indicate that the observed change of seasonal pattern in Spain in the last decades, as in other European countries, may be specifically driven by the progressive higher participation of women in labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Essential newborn care (ENC) practices play an important role in reducing the risk of infant mortality and morbidity. Therefore, more studies are needed on ENC practices. Skilled maternal healthcare can be a good strategy to increase the practice. Learn about the independent and joint effects of skilled maternal healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth on newborn care practices. Methods: The study used a cross‐sectional data obtained from Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, 2019. To investigate the association between maternal healthcare utilization and good ENC practice (cord care, delayed bathing, and immediate breast‐feeding), χ2 test and t‐test in bivariate and binary logistic regression analysis, respectively have been performed after taking into account complex survey design. Results: Only about 24% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22.95%–25.89%) women given birth at home in rural Bangladesh followed good newborn care practice. The results obtained from adjusted regression analysis showed that a woman was 24%, 49%, and 75% more likely of having good ENC practice if she received four or more skilled checkups during antenatal period only (adjusted odds ratios [AOR]: 1.24, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.60), received assistance from SBA during delivery only (AOR: 1.49, 95% CI 1.12, 1.97) and received skilled healthcare in both pregnancy and delivery (AOR: 1.75, 95% CI 1.13, 2.71), respectively compared to a woman who did not get an opportunity to receive skilled healthcare during pregnancy and delivery. Among the selected confounders, maternal age at birth, birth order, education of household heads and religion showed a significant association with good ENC practice. Conclusion: The study revealed that proper maternal healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth from skilled health personnel can improve the rate of ENC practices. For this, more training programs should be started, especially at the community level, and health promotion activities are needed to create awareness about efficient maternal healthcare practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hatching/birthing asynchrony, when siblings emerge at least 12 h apart, is thought to be a significant driver of phenotypic variation and group cohesion that is commonly reported in invertebrates and birds, but rarely in squamates. We examined birthing asynchrony in African cordylid lizards (Cordylidae), a clade characterized by a wide range of sociality (a hypothesized evolutionary driver of this unique phenomenon). We monitored parturition from wild‐caught mothers from four species, which vary in their conspecific grouping behaviour. In two species, most litters were born asynchronously, over a maximum of 3–4 days respectively. The other two cordylids also exhibited asynchronous birth in all litters with more than one offspring, although this was not applicable for most litters because there was a prevalence of singleton litters. Our study uncovered birthing asynchrony in a novel taxonomic group, which suggests it evolved convergently in at least two social lizard clades from different continents. Furthermore, the function of birthing asynchrony and limiting litter size to a single offspring may be similar in social animals. We discuss the potential significance of this rare phenomenon in this disparate taxon, and compare it with other more well‐studied taxa, in order to guide future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the effect of CEO birth order on corporate innovation. Using hand‐collected data, we find that firms led by firstborn CEOs are less innovative. This finding survives a number of robustness checks. When firms are more risky, non‐state‐owned or less financially constrained, the association between birth order and innovation is stronger, suggesting that the negative impact of firstborn CEOs is larger when their innovative personality is more demanding or influential. Meanwhile, firstborn CEOs have larger impact on corporate innovation when they are born in cities where Confucian culture are more influential or grow up in a low‐income family, consistent with our argument that sibling competition makes firstborns less innovative. Overall, our results suggest that firstborn CEOs have negative effect on corporate innovation because they are less innovative intrinsically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]