This chapter focuses on early educational inequality and addresses the questions of why and how children from different social backgrounds differ in their developmental trajectories during early childhood. Firstly, it presents a resource-oriented model of early child development: parental resources are expected to indirectly affect their children’s development in early childhood via the provision of different learning environments. Secondly, it summarizes empirical results regarding these associations. The literature identifies socioeconomic status differences in the home environment as a major source of unequal developmental trajectories in early childhood. In contrast, the role of early educational institutions might be more ambiguous as selection and compensation effects tend to work in different directions. Parents’ child care choices also seem to be context-dependent.
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Front Matter
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Part I: Introduction
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Part II: Theoretical Foundations
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Part III: Methodological Problems
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Part IV: Modernization And Educational Expansion
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Part V: Organization of Education and Outcomes
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Part VI: Benefits of Education and Returns To education
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Part VII: Migration, Education and Social Integration
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Part VIII: Policy Implications of Research in The sociology of Education
