Social Disadvantage and Child Emotional and Behavioural Problems: At HOME in the Netherlands

Abstract

Past research has repeatedly emphasised the important role of children's home environments in shaping their development. There is ample evidence that children who have limited access to age-appropriate learning materials in the home more often manifest behavioural problems. Poor physical conditions of the home, such as low housing quality, have been linked to children's emotional problems. The present thesis examines prospective associations of observed infants' home environments with emotional and behavioural problems. All studies included in this thesis were conducted within the context of the Generation R Study, a large population-based cohort from foetal life onward in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.