Inclusion | Exclusion | |
---|---|---|
Population and context | Studies must include children, some or all of whom are aged between 3 and 15 years, across socioeconomic strata in high-income country settings, defined as OECD membership. | Studies of children from non-OECD countries. Studies which focus solely on a particular subset of children with a particular health or development need. |
Exposure | A measure of child development at primary school starting age (3–7 years), defined as cognitive or physical or linguistic or socio-emotional development at school starting age, measured by any of the following: • School readiness, as measured by scales such as the Bracken Basic Concepts Scale Revised (BBCS-R) [39] • Cognitive development as measured by, for example, non-reading intelligence tests, vocabulary tests, maths tests or parent/teacher ratings. • Language and literacy (as measured by academic achievement test scores such as pre-reading/reading, vocabulary, oral comprehension, phonological awareness, pre-writing/writing or verbal skills. • Emotional well-being and social competence (as measured by behavioural assessments of social interaction, problem behaviours, social skills and competencies, child-parent relationship/child-teacher relationship). • Physical development. Studies that explore socioeconomic and environmental factors which affect associations between child development at primary school starting age and these outcomes Studies that explore mechanisms or pathways between child development at primary school starting age and these outcomes. | Studies reporting neither data nor mechanism between exposure and outcome will be excluded. |
Outcome | Primary outcome(s) The review will incorporate evidence health and wellbeing outcomes, reported between the ages of 8–15 years, specifically: Weight (BMI) Mental Health (as measured by standard questionnaires or clinically) Socio-emotional behaviour Proxy measures such as dietary habits and behaviour and measures of wellbeing will be included. Secondary outcome(s) Educational outcomes Performance at the end of primary school (age 10–11), measured by standardized tests. | Studies reporting neither data nor mechanism between exposure and outcome will be excluded. |
Study design and sources | Observational studies (ecological, case-control, cohort (prospective and retrospective)) RCTs, quasi experimental, review level studies including theory papers | Cross-sectional studies, conference abstracts, books, dissertations, opinion piece |