IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v127y2015icp116-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can universal pre-kindergarten programs improve population health and longevity? Mechanisms, evidence, and policy implications

Author

Listed:
  • Muennig, Peter

Abstract

Recent research has found that children who attended pre-kindergarten programs in childhood were more likely to be healthy as adults. One intuitive way of improving population health and longevity may therefore be to invest in pre-kindergarten programs. However, much of the research linking pre-kindergarten programs to health is very recent and has not been synthesized. In this paper, I review the mechanisms linking pre-kindergarten programs in childhood to adult longevity, and the experimental evidence backing up these linkages. I conclude with a critical exploration of whether investments in pre-kindergarten programs could also serve as investments in public health.

Suggested Citation

  • Muennig, Peter, 2015. "Can universal pre-kindergarten programs improve population health and longevity? Mechanisms, evidence, and policy implications," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 116-123.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:127:y:2015:i:c:p:116-123
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953614005590
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.08.033?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Muennig, P. & Fiscella, K. & Tancredl, D. & Franks, P., 2010. "The relative health burden of selected social and behavioral risk factors in the united states: Implications for policy," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(9), pages 1758-1764.
    2. Barbara H. Kehrer & Charles M. Wolin, 1979. "Impact of Income Maintenance on Low Birth Weight: Evidence from the Gary Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 14(4), pages 434-462.
    3. Jens Ludwig & Douglas L. Miller, 2007. "Does Head Start Improve Children's Life Chances? Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(1), pages 159-208.
    4. Heckman, James J. & Moon, Seong Hyeok & Pinto, Rodrigo & Savelyev, Peter A. & Yavitz, Adam, 2010. "The rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1-2), pages 114-128, February.
    5. Carneiro, Pedro & Heckman, James J., 2003. "Human Capital Policy," IZA Discussion Papers 821, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. repec:mpr:mprres:3740 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2005. "The Relationship Between Education and Adult Mortality in the United States," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 189-221.
    8. Krueger, Alan B & Whitmore, Diane M, 2001. "The Effect of Attending a Small Class in the Early Grades on College-Test Taking and Middle School Test Results: Evidence from Project STAR," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(468), pages 1-28, January.
    9. Muennig, Peter & Cohen, Alison K. & Palmer, Aileen & Zhu, Wenyi, 2013. "The relationship between five different measures of structural social capital, medical examination outcomes, and mortality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 18-26.
    10. Muennig, P. & Schweinhart, L. & Montie, J. & Neidell, M., 2009. "Effects of a prekindergarten educational intervention on adult health: 37-Year follow-up results of a randomized controlled trial," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 99(8), pages 1431-1437.
    11. Janet Currie, 2001. "Early Childhood Education Programs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    12. Woolf, S.H. & Johnson, R.E. & Phillips Jr., R.L. & Philipsen, M., 2007. "Giving everyone the health of the educated: An examination of whether social change would save more lives than medical advances," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 97(4), pages 679-683.
    13. Galea, S. & Tracy, M. & Hoggatt, K.J. & DiMaggio, C. & Karpati, A., 2011. "Estimated deaths attributable to social factors in the united states," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(8), pages 1456-1465.
    14. Golembeski, C. & Fullilove, R., 2005. "Criminal (in)justice in the city and its associated health consequences," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(10), pages 1701-1706.
    15. Victor R. Fuchs, 2018. "Reflections on the Socio-Economic Correlates of Health," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Health Economics and Policy Selected Writings by Victor Fuchs, chapter 10, pages 115-124, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Muennig, P. & Robertson, D. & Johnson, G. & Campbell, F. & Pungello, E.P. & Neidell, M., 2011. "The effect of an early education program on adult health: The Carolina abecedarian project randomized controlled trial," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(3), pages 512-516.
    17. Sue Ramsden & Fiona M. Richardson & Goulven Josse & Michael S. C. Thomas & Caroline Ellis & Clare Shakeshaft & Mohamed L. Seghier & Cathy J. Price, 2011. "Verbal and non-verbal intelligence changes in the teenage brain," Nature, Nature, vol. 479(7371), pages 113-116, November.
    18. Norman Johnson & Paul Sorlie & Eric Backlund, 1999. "The impact of specific occupation on mortality in the U.S. National Longitudinal Mortality Study," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 36(3), pages 355-367, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abrahamsen, Signe A. & Ginja, Rita & Riise, Julie, 2021. "School Health Programs: Education, Health, and Welfare Dependency of Young Adults," IZA Discussion Papers 14546, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Hong, Kai & Dragan, Kacie & Glied, Sherry, 2019. "Seeing and hearing: The impacts of New York City’s universal pre-kindergarten program on the health of low-income children," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 93-107.
    3. Cohen, Nevin & Ilieva, Rositsa T., 2021. "Expanding the boundaries of food policy: The turn to equity in New York City," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Amy Ehntholt & Daniel M. Cook & Natalie A. Rosenquist & Peter Muennig & Roman Pabayo, 2020. "State- and county-level income inequality and infant mortality in the USA in 2010: a cohort study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 65(6), pages 769-780, July.
    5. Amy Ehntholt & Daniel M. Cook & Natalie A. Rosenquist & Peter Muennig & Roman Pabayo, 0. "State- and county-level income inequality and infant mortality in the USA in 2010: a cohort study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 0, pages 1-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Peter Muennig & Meghan Kuebler & Jaeseung Kim & Dusan Todorovic & Zohn Rosen, 2013. "Gender Differences in Material, Psychological, and Social Domains of the Income Gradient in Mortality: Implications for Policy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-8, March.
    2. Drange, Nina & Havnes, Tarjei & Sandsør, Astrid M.J., 2016. "Kindergarten for all: Long run effects of a universal intervention," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 164-181.
    3. Berlinski, Samuel & Galiani, Sebastian & Gertler, Paul, 2009. "The effect of pre-primary education on primary school performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1-2), pages 219-234, February.
    4. Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2005. "Targeted Remedial Education for Underperforming Teenagers: Costs and Benefits," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(4), pages 839-874, October.
    5. Stephen Machin & Sandra McNally & Costas Meghir, 2010. "Resources and Standards in Urban Schools," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(4), pages 365-393.
    6. Greve, Jane & Schultz-Nielsen, Marie Louise & Tekin, Erdal, 2017. "Fetal malnutrition and academic success: Evidence from Muslim immigrants in Denmark," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 20-35.
    7. Will Dobbie & Roland G. Fryer, Jr, 2009. "Are High Quality Schools Enough to Close the Achievement Gap? Evidence from a Social Experiment in Harlem," NBER Working Papers 15473, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2010. "Longer-Term Impacts of Mentoring, Educational Services, and Incentives to Learn: Evidence from a Randomized Trial," IZA Discussion Papers 4754, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Kautz, Tim & Heckman, James J. & Diris, Ron & ter Weel, Bas & Borghans, Lex, 2014. "Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success," IZA Discussion Papers 8696, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Dimiski, Anastasia, 2023. "How does pre-school attendance affect school performance? An application of Gini-BMA methodology on PISA 2018 dataset," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 28(C).
    11. Hideo Akabayashi & Ryuichi Tanaka, 2013. "Long-Term Effects of Preschooling on Educational Attainments," Keio/Kyoto Joint Global COE Discussion Paper Series 2012-033, Keio/Kyoto Joint Global COE Program.
    12. Akabayashi, Hideo & Ruberg, Tim & Shikishima, Chizuru & Yamashita, Jun, 2023. "Education-oriented and care-oriented preschools: Implications on child development," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Samuel Berlinski & Norbert Schady, 2015. "Daycare Services: It’s All about Quality," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Samuel Berlinski & Norbert Schady (ed.), The Early Years, chapter 4, pages 91-119, Palgrave Macmillan.
    14. Anastasia Dimiski, 2020. "Factors that affect Students’ performance in Science: An application using Gini-BMA methodology in PISA 2015 dataset," Working Papers 2004, University of Guelph, Department of Economics and Finance.
    15. repec:cep:spccrp:21 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Patrick Kline & Christopher R. Walters, 2016. "Evaluating Public Programs with Close Substitutes: The Case of HeadStart," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(4), pages 1795-1848.
    17. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Nathaniel Hilger & Emmanuel Saez & Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach & Danny Yagan, 2011. "How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(4), pages 1593-1660.
    18. Jens Ludwig & Deborah A. Phillips, 2007. "The Benefits and Costs of Head Start," NBER Working Papers 12973, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Apps, Patricia & Mendolia, Silvia & Walker, Ian, 2013. "The impact of pre-school on adolescents’ outcomes: Evidence from a recent English cohort," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 183-199.
    20. David Deming, 2009. "Early Childhood Intervention and Life-Cycle Skill Development: Evidence from Head Start," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(3), pages 111-134, July.
    21. Deniz Karaoğlan & Meltem Dayioğlu & Dürdane Şirin Saraçoğlu & Serap Sağir, 2024. "Unlevel Playing Field: Socioeconomic Determinants of Early Childhood Development in Turkiye," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 17(4), pages 1741-1770, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:127:y:2015:i:c:p:116-123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.