Early childhood growth trajectories and early adolescent cognitive achievement: the role of catch-up

Abstract

Human capital deficits in early childhood in terms of health and cognitive developmental issues are conceptualized as a lurking threat to China’s future economic growth by a growing body of scholarly literature; however, it is unknown whether these deficits persist into adolescence. This study draws upon longitudinal, nationally-representative data from the China Family Panel Studies 2010–2020 to investigate the possibility of recovering from early growth retardation and the potential implications for recovery of related cognitive outcomes. In particular, the paper considers whether there is evidence of cognitive catch-up from early cognitive delays. Based on group-based trajectory models with inverse probability of treatment weighting, this study finds that mid-childhood catch-up growth may mitigate the negative effects of early childhood stunting on early adolescent academic performance. Moreover, children who recover from stunting demonstrate cognitive catch-up in Chinese but not in math. This evidence not only reaffirms the significance of early childhood development but also suggests an opportunity for interventions to avert undernutrition and cognitive deficits after early childhood.