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Aboriginal People in Manitoba 2000 Chapter 3 : Child Care and Development

Researchers are increasingly focusing upon the effects of the environment and life experiences in the early childhood years, especially ages 0-3, on long-term life outcomes. The way that children are cared for in these years “influences problem solving, language acquisition, coping skills and productivity for the rest of their lives.” ¹

Human Resource Development Canada and Statistics Canada have launched a massive “National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth” which will follow a group of 23,831 children, located across Canada and aged 0-11 in 1994-95, until they reach adulthood. The study is designed to look into the “black box” of child development to see which supposed “at risk factors” are responsible for negative outcomes, and how these factors interact:

While we are certain that family financial resources are associated with many aspects of child development, we are not as certain of the various ways the influence is transmitted. It can be through nutrition, stress, health care, access to material goods, self-esteem, neighbourhood influence, and so on.²

Briefly, preliminary results from the first “cycle” of surveys suggest that individual risk factors (such as single parent families, low education of parents, low household income, parental depression, lack of social supports or family “dysfunction”) have very limited effects on academic and behavioural outcomes.

However, the effects of at risk factors appear to multiply, so that children with multiple risk factors show significantly more negative outcomes than children with fewer risk factors present. It has been estimated that two or three risk factors increase the chances of negative outcomes fourfold, and four risk factors tenfold.³ However, parenting styles can positively or negatively impact outcomes to some extent, so that “children in at-risk situations who enjoyed positive parenting achieved scores within the average range for children in Canada.”⁴

This is significant, precisely because large numbers of Aboriginal children in Manitoba find themselves in multiple risk situations. Single parent families, teen parents, less than Grade 12 education, low income, parental incarceration, health problems and disabilities, foster placements and children in care – each of these sorts of issues have been demonstrated by evidence to be more likely to “find” the Aboriginal family. The at-risk factors are themselves interrelated, and often appear together — for example, single mothers with low educational attainments, low income, poor urban neighbourhoods and frequent residential moves.

During the 1990’s, the federal government has provided funding for a number of initiatives offering subsidized day care and developmental services for Aboriginal pre-schoolers. Health Canada’s Head Start program was initially targeted at off-reserve Aboriginal people, and has more recently added an on-reserve component. As well, since 1997, Human Resources Development Canada has provided funding for on-reserve child-care centres for parents pursuing training or employment. There are day care centres in each Manitoba First Nation, administered by local officials.