| Reasoning, pattern recognition, and problem solving are key cognitive skills developed during childhood that are critical for a productive adulthood. This dissertation explores how family, school, and community characteristics shape the development of these cognitive skills in primary grade children in eastern Indonesia. Using Indonesia Family Life Survey in Eastern Indonesia year 2012 (IFLS East 2012), this study adapts Bronfenbrenner's socio-ecological framework in analyzing interactions between child- and village-level factors associated with cognitive development. Two-level hierarchical linear modeling was performed with child and village as level 1 and level 2 units of analysis, respectively.;Children schooling (grade-level and attendance in kindergarten) and family background (family education, technology devices the family possesses, and ethnicity) are the child-level variables associated with their cognitive test score. At village level, school resources (the average of class size, principal educational attainment, and school building condition), urbanicity, and health facility are associated with between-villages variation in cognitive development among typical children in eastern Indonesia. The cross-level interactions between village- and child-level variables show that across villages, there are different patterns of the impact of family education and children schooling on cognitive development. In villages where the school buildings are in good condition, cognitive development gaps related to differences in family education is not as strong as it is in villages where the school buildings are in poor condition such that the learning process is disrupted by floods and leaking roofs. The effect of attending kindergarten is also strong that the negative effect of large class size on cognitive development was substantially smaller for children who attended kindergarten. Thus, among the policy implications is to expand access and affordable pre-primary education program in eastern Indonesia. |
