Young children in Indonesia's low-income rural communities: How are they doing and what do they need?

Abstract

This chapter describes the development of young children in a sample of poor rural communities across Indonesia. It links their developmental trajectories with the characteristics of their families, the parenting practices they are exposed to, and the typical early childhood education and development (ECED) services available to them. Using a number of different sources of data, including data on several measures of child development employed for the first time in Indonesia, the chapter offers new evidence about the development of poor children in each of the domains important for comprehensive school readiness. We also describe characteristics of young children’s families and the kinds of ECED services available in their communities. The chapter shows how various child, family, and community characteristics may lead to differences in children’s development. We show that even when looking only at districts that have similar levels of poverty, disparities in child development are apparent. The chapter concludes by assessing the relative importance of parenting practices and ECED service enrollment for improving