Developmental theories emphasize the importance of early social context on various developmental aspects. The aim of this study was to examine the influence of specific social context (single-parent family or growing up without parents) on children’s cognitive development. In addition, gender differences regarding different family context were also examined. 147 pre-school children aged 6 to 7 years participated in this study. The sample was divided into three categories: children living with both parents (from birth), children living with a single-parent (mother) for at least three years, and children in institutional placement. Children’s cognitive status was measured by a verbal and non-verbal intelligence test. Readiness for school, as an additional aspect of cognitive status, was also examined (including factual knowledge, perception, numerical reasoning and graphomotorics). The results indicate that children who grow up without parents, compared to those growing up with both parents, have systematically lower results on all measures of cognitive status. Some differences were also obtained in comparison to children growing up in single-parent families. There are no significant differences in cognitive outcomes of children growing up with both parents and single-parents. With regard to gender differences, the results revealed that girls in institutional placement have significantly lower results in comparison to boys from the same social context, but also in comparison to the other two categories of children. These results should be taken into consideration when planning activities aimed at helping children who grow up without parents to prepare and successfully adjust to school context.

children’s cognitive development, social context, institutional placement