AccScience Publishing / IJPS / Volume 3 / Issue 2 / DOI: 10.18063/ijps.v3i2.348
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Consequences of forced migration during early childhood on cognitive well-being in later childhood in Andhra Pradesh, India

Ashish Kumar Upadhyay1* Swati Srivastava1 Chhavi Paul1
Show Less
1 International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India
IJPS 2017, 3(2), 16–28; https://doi.org/10.18063/ijps.v3i2.348
© Invalid date by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Unlike its short-term impact on consumption and income, forced migration is expected to deliver a permanent shock to the overall well-being of households, specifically children in the stage of infancy. Studies on the effect of forced migration on child cognitive well-being are few in number. Therefore, the present study is intended to examine the consequences of forced migration during infancy on child cognition at later age. We hypothesized that the effect of forced migration on child cognitive well-being can be mitigated by social support. The study used longitudinal data from three waves of the Young Lives Study (YLS) conducted in 2002, 2006–2007, and 2009 in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. We used bivariate and multivariate regression models to analyze the consequences of forced migration in early childhood on the cognitive well-being in later childhood. The information on forced migration was collected in Wave 1 (at age 1), whereas the information on the cognitive well-being of the children was collected in Wave 3 (at age 8). Child cognitive well-being was measured using scores obtained by the children on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), math, Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA), and memory tests. The results of the bivariate analysis show that the mean PPVT, math, EGRA, and memory scores obtained by children from the migrated households were lower than those obtained by children from the non-migrated households. Results of the multivariate linear regression models also show that children from the migrated households were statistically less likely to achieve higher scores on math (coefficient: -2.008, 95% C.I.-3.108, -0.908), EGRA (coefficient: -0.746, 95% C.I.-1.366, -0.126), and memory (coefficient: -0.503, 95% C.I. -0.834, -0.173) as compared to children from the non-migrated households. Our findings also indicate that the effect of forced migration on child cognitive well-being was not mitigated by social support. Findings of this study conclude that forced migration during infancy has a significant effect on child cognitive well-being at later age. Therefore, interventions should be made, paying attention to the most vulnerable children who were displaced during critical development ages.

Keywords
forced migration
cognitive well-being
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
math
Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA)
memory scores
social support
References
[1]

Agadjanian V and Prata N (2003). Civil war and child health: Regional and ethnic dimensionsof child immuniza-tion and malnutrition in Angola. Social Science & Medicine, 56(12): 2515–2527. http://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-9536(02)00286-1.

[2]

Avogo WA and Agadjanian V (2010). Forced migration and child health and mortality in Angola. Social Science & Medicine, 70(1): 53–60. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.09.057.

[3]

Barnett I, Ariana P, Petrou S, et al. (2012). Cohort profile: The young lives study. International Journal of Epi-demiology, 42(3): 701–708. http://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dys082.

[4]

Baron RM and Kenny DA (1986). The moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6): 1173. http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173.

[5]

Bennett IM, Schott W and Krutikova S, et al. (2015). Maternal mental health, and child growth and development, in four low-income and middle-income countries. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 70(2): 168. http://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2014-205311.

[6]

Bernal R, Fernández C , Flórez Nieto CE, et al. (2009). Evaluation of the early childhood program hogares co-munitarios de bienestar in Colombia. Ssrn Electronic Journal. http:// doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1486209.

[7]

Black RE, Victora CG, Walker SP, et al. (2013). Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries. The Lancet, 382(9890): 427–451. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60937-X

[8]

Cueto S, Leon J, Guerrero G, et al. (2012). Psychometric characteristics of cognitive development and achieve-ment instruments in round 3 of young lives.

[9]

Dercon S and Outes-Leon I (2008). Survey attrition and attrition bias in Young Lives. Young Lives Technical Note, 5. Available from: http://www.younglives.org.uk/files/YL-TN5-OutesLeon-Survey-Attrition.pdf.

[10]

Doocy S, Burnham G and Robinson C (2007). Estimating demographic indicators in a conflict-affected popula-tion in eastern Sudan. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 22(02): 112–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X00004489.

[11]

Dunn LM and Dunn LM (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (PPVT-III). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service. Circle Pines Mn American Guidance Service Inc, 193(1): 2645–2666.

[12]

Esipova N, Pugliese A and Ray J (2013). The demographics of global internal migration. Migration Policy Practice, 3(2): 3–5.

[13]

Flores E and Escobal D’Angelo J (2009). Maternal migration and child well-being in Peru: Young lives.

[14]

Galab M, Gopinath R, Piyush A, et al. (2003). Young live preliminary country report: Andhra Pradesh, India 2003

[15]

Guha-Sapir D and Panhuis WG (2004). Conflict-related mortality: An analysis of 37 datasets. Disasters, 28(4): 418–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0361-3666.2004.00267.x.

[16]

Hildebrandt N, McKenzie DJ, Esquivel G, et al. (2005). The effects of migration on child health in Mexico [with comments]. Economia, 6(1): 257–289.Avaliable from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20065490.

[17]

Ibáñez AM and Moya A (2010). Vulnerability of victims of civil conflicts: empirical evidence for the displaced population in Colombia. World Development, 38(4): 647–663. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2009.11.015.

[18]

Kawachi I and Berkman LF (2001). Social ties and mental health. Journal of Urban Health, 78(3): 458–467. http://doi.org/10.1093/jurban/78.3.458.

[19]

Kniveton D, Schmidt-Verkerk K, Smith C, et al. (2008). Climate change and migration: Improving methodolo-gies to estimate flows. IOM Migration Series, No.3

[20]

Kondylis F (2005). Agricultural production and conflict refugee status: Quasi-experimental evidence from a pol-icy intervention programme in Rwanda. Londres: Economics

[21]

Department, Universidad de London, 8. Avaliable from:https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c3e1/d71e26f35573283c6c454a3ef7d98c99209a.pdf.

[22]

Kumra N (2008). An assessment of the young lives sampling approach in Andhra Pradesh, India. Oxford: Young Lives.

[23]

Laczko F and Aghazarm C (2009). Migration, environment and climate change: Assessing the evidence: Interna-tional Organization for Migration Geneva.

[24]

Martin P (2013). The global challenge of managing migration. Population Bulletin, 68(2): 15. Avaliable from: http://www.prb.org/pdf13/global-migration.pdf.

[25]

O’Hare BAM and Southall DP (2007). First do no harm: The impact of recent armed conflict on maternal and child health in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 100(12): 564–570. https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.100.12.564.

[26]

OCHA/IDMC (2009). Monitoring disaster displacement in the context of climate change. Findings of a study by the United Nations Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs and the internal displacement monitoring centre. Avaliable from: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4ab9cd4e2.html.

[27]

Ortiz BK (2014). Forced displacement and early childhood nutritional development in Colombia: Households in conflict network.

[28]

Rossi A (2008). The impact of migration on children in developing countries. Paper presented at the Un-published manuscript prepared for the Youth Migration Conference. Avaliable from: http://globalnetwork.princeton.edu/bellagio/Rossi.pdf.

[29]

Rousseau C, Mekki-Berrada A and Rufagari M (1999). Traumatismes et séparations familiales prolongées chez les réfugiés du Congo-Kinshasa établis à Montréal [in French]. Trauma and separations protests for congo-kinshasa refugees in montreal. Canadian Journal of African Studies/La Revue canadienne des études afri-caines, 33(2–3): 584–592. https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.1999.10751175.

[30]

Senessie C, Gage GN and von Elm E (2007). Delays in childhood immunization in a conflict area: A study from Sierra Leone during civil war. Conflict and health, 1(1): 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-1-14.

[31]

Stevens GWJM and Vollebergh WAM (2008). Mental health in migrant children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(3): 276–294. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2007.01848.x.

[32]

UNHCR (2009). 2008 global trends: Refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced and stateless per-sons

[33]

WHO and UNICEF (2012 update). Progress on drinking water and sanitation from New York: World Health Organization & United Nations Children’s Fund; 2012

[34]

World Bank (2013) Lebanon: Economic and social impact assessment of the Syrian conflict, Re-port No. 81098-LB, Lebanon, 20 September 2013, 78.

Share
Back to top
International Journal of Population Studies, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8606 Print ISSN: 2424-8150, Published by AccScience Publishing