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Section Four: What Were the Children and Families Like at the
Beginning of the Study?

In order to understand the possible effects of pre-school experience upon children’s
development, it is essential to take account of pre-existing differences between children at the
start of the pre-school period. Hence information on the characteristics of the parents, families,
and children was collected by parental interview at the start of the study. This information
included data on parents labour market participation, socio-economic characteristics,
qualifications, marital status and age as well as the family’s composition, ethnicity and language,
the child’s health, development and behaviour, the child’s activities in the home, the use of pre-
school provision and childcare history.

The sample’s socio-economic characteristics were compared to those of a recent national
sample of parents of similar age children and the EPPE sample was found to be somewhat over-
represented at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. This was anticipated because the
project sampled from Local Authorities that were chosen to maintain a reasonable representation
of social disadvantage.

While the EPPE sample was not designed to be wholly representative of the population of the
UK, it is useful to know the relationship between the sample and the wider population. Towards
the beginning of the research, a nationally representative sample of parents with a pre-school
child was surveyed for the DfES (Prior et al, 1999). Using this survey as the basis for statistics
on a national sample, it is possible to compare the EPPE sample with a national sample of
parents of 3-4 year old children. Table 4.1 shows this comparison for educational qualifications
of the mother. Similar comparisons for other socio-economic variables show a similar pattern.

The national sample by Prior (ibid) is drawn from all parents of 3-4 year old children, regardless
of whether their child attends a pre-school centre. The EPPE sample is specifically drawn from
users of six types of pre-school centre; nursery classes, playgroups, private day nurseries, local
authority day nurseries, nursery schools and integrated centres as well as a ‘home’ group with no
pre-school centre experience.

Comparing the EPPE sample with the UK population

Table 4.1 Educational qualifications of mother: EPPE versus national sample.

_________Qualification_________

EPPE Sample%

_____National Sample %_____

_______Degree or higher_______

_____________16.9_____________

_____________12.9_____________

_____HND, 18+ vocational_____

_____________13.4_____________

_______________12.1_______________

_____________A level_____________

_______________8.4_______________

_____________12.7_____________

_____________O level_____________

_____________37.0_____________

______________44.1______________

_______Less than O level_______

_____________23.4_____________

_____________16.2_____________

_____Other miscellaneous_____

_______________0.9_______________

________________1.9_______________

The EPPE sample is over-represented (as compared with a national sample) at the bottom end
of the socio-economic spectrum with some over-representation at the top end of the spectrum.
This was done for two reasons: (a) to provide sufficiently large numbers of disadvantaged/ethnic
minority children for robust findings related to them, and (b) to lead to a representative sample at
age 7 after (anticipated) selective attrition in more disadvantaged groups.

10



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