Family Socioeconomic Status and Social-emotional Development among Young Children in Malaysia

Abstract

Background and Objective: The impact of family socioeconomic status on children social-emotional development often debated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of family socioeconomic status on the children social-emotional development. Materials and Methods: Three constructs of socioeconomic status of the families were analyzed in this research, parentʼs level of education, parentʼs occupation and parentʼs monthly income. About 237 children age 42-54 months have been involved in the study. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric analysis of Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: The analysis found that there is a significant difference between the level of social-emotional development of children with parentsʼ education level, parentsʼ income and parentsʼ occupation. However, the analysis of the level of social-emotional development of children with fatherʼs occupation found no significant differences. Analysis of the effect size of the Epsilon-Squared found that a strong relationship between the level of social-emotional development of children with motherʼs education level, motherʼs occupation and father's income, an average relationship to the fatherʼs education level and poor relationship to the fatherʼs occupation. Conclusion: The study altogether found that socioeconomic status of families play an important role in influencing the social-emotional development of children. The organizations involved in the early childhood education should take the proactive endeavor so that children with the low socioeconomic status to be given better service to foster their social-emotional development.