Cognitive development and parenting during early childhood among Mapuche and non-indigenous Chileans

Abstract The current article studies the differences in cognitive development between Mapuche preschoolers and non-Indigenous preschoolers in Chile. The Mapuches comprise the main Indigenous group in Chile and a socioeconomically vulnerable group. We studied the differences in cognitive development between these two groups, focusing on the role of the families’ socioeconomic resources and the parental behaviors. We use data from the 2012 Encuesta Longitudinal de Primera Infancia, a nationally representative survey of early childhood (0–6 years old) in Chile, which includes a test of cognitive development validated for Mapuche preschoolers. Our results indicate that the cognitive gap between Mapuche children and non-Indigenous children in Chile starts before they enter primary school (SD = 0.2, p