Nature's Experiment? Handedness and Early Childhood Development

In recent years, a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labor market outcomes. In this article, we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on ch...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Demography 2009-05, Vol.46 (2), p.281-301
Main Authors: Johnston, David W., Nicholls, Michael E. R., Shah, Manisha, Shields, Michael A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain research
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Childbirth
Children
Children & youth
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
Cognitive development
Demographic indicators
Demographics
Demography
Early childhood
Educational Attainment
Employment
Employment Opportunities
Family Characteristics
Functional Laterality
Geography
Handedness
Humans
Impact analysis
International
Labor market
Labour market
Left handedness
Medicine/Public Health
Mothers
Parental Attitudes
Parents
Pathology
Physical Characteristics
Population
Population Economics
Sex Differences
Siblings
Single fathers
Social indicators
Social Sciences
Socioeconomic Factors
Socioeconomic status
Sociology
Studies
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Summary:In recent years, a large body of research has investigated the various factors affecting child development and the consequent impact of child development on future educational and labor market outcomes. In this article, we contribute to this literature by investigating the effect of handedness on child development. This is an important issue given that around 10% of the world's population is left-handed and given recent research demonstrating that child development strongly affects adult outcomes. Using a large, nationally representative sample of young children, we find that the probability of a child being left-handed is not significantly related to child health at birth, family composition, parental employment, or household income. We also find robust evidence that left-handed (and mixed-handed) children perform significantly worse in nearly all measures of development than right-handed children, with the relative disadvantage being larger for boys than girls. Importantly, these differentials cannot be explained by different socioeconomic characteristics of the household, parental attitudes, or investments in learning resources.
ISSN:0070-3370
1533-7790
DOI:10.1353/dem.0.0053