Research shows that maintenance of Spanish, the heritage or home language of 75% of U.S. Latine children and adolescents, is associated with their positive psychosocial development and academic achievement. Furthermore, a solid foundation in oral language skills in early childhood contributes to their literacy and overall academic success. Use of Spanish in the home by parents/caregivers has been studied in relation to Latine children’s Spanish oral language skills, yet relatively little is known about the cultural factors that shape these skills in early childhood. Using observation based measures of language production in the interactions of 166 Mexican-origin young mothers (Mage = 19.98; SD = 1.00) with their children, this study examined mothers’ Mexican cultural involvement when their children were three years of age, their cultural socialization practices and Spanish language use with their children at child age 4, and the direct and indirect associations of these cultural factors with children’s language production in Spanish at child age 5. Results showed that mothers’ Mexican cultural involvement positively predicted their young children’s Spanish oral language production at age 5, even after controlling for mothers’ use of Spanish in mother-child interactions and efforts to socialize their young children to the Mexican culture. Mothers’ use of Spanish and their cultural socialization efforts differentially mediated the association between their Mexican cultural involvement and their young children’s Spanish language skills. Findings highlight the critical role of Mexican-origin mothers’ cultural assets for their children’s bilingual development in early childhood.
Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, a nationally representative dataset of children born in the United States, this study empirically identified common patterns of early care and education (ECE) utilization, focusing on care type, timing, and duration when children were 9 months, 2 years, and 4.5 years old. We then investigated how child and family characteristics differ across identified profiles of ECE utilization. Latent Class Growth Analysis revealed four distinct groups of children with experiences that vary across developmental periods in the amount and type of care: (a) Relative-Center (14.79%), (b) Nonrelative-Center (11.20%), (c) All Time Center (7.37%), and (d) Parental-Center (48.28%). Additionally, a Parental Care group (18.37%) was identified for children who spent <5 hours per week in any non-parental care across all years. Our findings highlight clear differences in ECE utilization patterns over time among families with varying socio-demographic characteristics, likely reflecting differences in resources, accessibility, preferences, and care needs. They call attention to significant differences in infant and toddler care, in particular, and provide relevant implications for current debates in how to strengthen a comprehensive 0-5 system that supports all children.
An increasingly prominent environmental influence for young children is their screen media exposure. For preschoolers (children aged 2-5 years), television and video viewing remains the most common type of screen media consumed. In this research we aimed to examine children’s natural television viewing habits (i.e., the television shows most frequently watched) at age 2 in relation to later language, literacy, and maths skills prior to school entry (age 4.5). Content viewed by children was coded for inclusion of language, literacy and maths instructional features. Data was collected as part of the longitudinal Growing Up in New Zealand study, with data available for 5,338 children and their mothers. Our results provide stronger evidence in favour of children learning language and maths skills than literacy skills from television, although in both cases learning was dependent on a moderated effect. Positive effects of language instructional features on vocabulary and communication were only seen among children from areas of high socioeconomic deprivation. With regards to numeracy skills, higher levels of television viewing were predictive of lower counting skills when children watched content with a low frequency of maths instructional features. Conversely, higher levels of television viewing were predictive of higher counting skills when children watched content with a high frequency of maths instructional features. Literacy instructional features were not associated with child outcomes. Our results indicate that for some children, exposure to educational media may help support the development of language and maths skills, highlighting the importance of high-quality educational media for preschool-aged children.
Armed conflict poses severe challenges to early childhood education systems and places exceptional psychological and emotional demands on early childhood educators (ECE). The present study examines the relationship between professional identity and burnout among ECEs during wartime, while integrating unique war-related job demands, children’s behavior, occupational perception, social support, and psychological capital, within a comprehensive theoretical model. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources and Conservation of Resources frameworks, mix method research conducted among 181 ECEs in Israel during the ongoing war. Caregiving demands during wartime, perceived effects of the war on children’s behavior, and the perceived impact of the war on occupational meaning were measured using validated and newly developed instruments.Structural equation modeling revealed that the overall model demonstrated acceptable fit. While the direct effect of professional identity on burnout was not significant, occupational perception during wartime significantly moderated this relationship, such that a stronger sense of meaning and mission enhanced the protective role of professional identity. In addition, social support buffered the relationship between caregiving demands and burnout. Psychological capital was positively associated with key resources but did not directly moderate burnout relationships. Qualitative findings further emphasized meaning at work as the dominant theme in educators’ wartime experience. The results highlight the complex resource–demand dynamics shaping burnout during armed conflict and underscore the central role of occupational meaning and social support. Implications for theory, practice, and emergency preparedness training in early childhood education are discussed.
Pattern understanding represents a foundational cognitive ability that shapes children’s early development in mathematics and reading domains. Despite growing research interest, critical questions remain about the domain-specific characteristics, the unique contributions of different pattern types to academic skills, and the directionality of these relations. To address these gaps, the current study tracked 115 Chinese kindergartners (Mean age = 5.04 years, SD = 0.59) across three measurement waves spanning 12 months, examining the longitudinal relations between repeating pattern, growing pattern, mathematical abilities, and word reading abilities. Cross-lagged analyzes revealed that pattern understanding exhibited bidirectional relations with mathematical abilities, with mathematical ability exerted a stronger facilitating effect on subsequent pattern understanding. By contrast, word reading showed a unidirectional relation, with repeating pattern facilitating later word reading development. Repeating pattern consistently related to growing pattern development in both the mathematics and reading models. These relations remained significant even after controlling for child’s age, spatial perception, working memory, and nonverbal intelligence. These findings suggest that pattern-based instructional interventions may effectively support both mathematics and word reading development, while mathematical instruction may offer opportunities for strengthening pattern understanding.
A key goal of publicly funded early care and education programs (ECE) programs-i.e., child-care subsidy, Head Start, and public pre-kindergarten programs-is to increase children in low-income families' participation in high-quality and center-based ECE in order to improve children's development and reduce income-based disparities in child outcomes. Yet, one reason why low-income children might be less likely to participate in center-based ECE than their higher-income counterparts is because their mothers are more likely to work a nonstandard schedule, and these programs typically operate on a daytime weekday schedule. Although publicly funded ECE programs have increased participation in center-based ECE among children from low-income families, it is unknown whether these effects are concentrated among children whose mothers work a standard schedule or also translate to children whose mothers work nonstandard schedules. In this study, we used data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation to estimate associations between public spending on ECE programs and children's participation in center-based ECE, focusing on heterogeneity by mothers' work schedules. We found that public ECE spending was associated with higher rates of center-based ECE participation among young children whose mothers worked standard and nonstandard schedules. Among 3-4-year-old children, gaps in center-based ECE participation between children whose mother worked a nonstandard versus standard schedule were small or nonexistent at high levels of ECE spending. Our findings suggest that publicly funded ECE programs increase low-income children's center-based ECE participation regardless of mothers' work timing.
Home visiting has been shown to be an effective support for families with young children. However, intensive in-home models often face persistent challenges with engagement and retention, which may limit their effectiveness for some families. A light-touch home visiting model—offering fewer visits over a shorter duration—delivered in a virtual setting presents an alternative opportunity for families to participate in home visiting and receive needed support with lower expectations for engagement. This paper explores the benefits of a light-touch home visiting program offered virtually to families with newborns through 9 months of age. Using administrative data from the Welcome Baby program, the study found increased enrollment and completion rates after the program’s transition to virtual implementation. The study also surveyed 910 families with new babies in Los Angeles County when their babies were 10 months and 18 months old. Those who had received Welcome Baby virtual visits demonstrated greater parenting confidence and parent-child interactions and had babies with stronger social and emotional development than families who did not receive Welcome Baby virtual visits. Differences were not observed for other measures of parenting behaviors. Families in Welcome Baby also were more likely to have consistent access to medical care, though this did not translate into greater use of well-care services. Findings suggest that virtual visits may make home visiting more accessible and offer important benefits for families.
Adopting a counter-storytelling paradigm, this qualitative study examines the workforce experiences of 10 Hmong women in Wisconsin who serve as early educators in formal early education settings and as cultural caregivers within family- and community-based contexts. Grounded in Critical Race Theory, Asian Critical Theory, Intersectionality, and Community Cultural Wealth, the study centers Hmong educators’ narratives to illuminate how race, gender, refugee history, language, and structural power coalesce to shape their professional lives. Findings reveal that Hmong early educators navigate Eurocentric definitions of quality, licensing practices, and professional norms that marginalize culturally rooted caregiving, linguistic knowledge, and intergenerational forms of care, while simultaneously bearing significant emotional, physical, and financial strain associated with racial gendered caregiving labor. Participants resisted these conditions by sustaining Hmong cultural practices, language, and relational caregiving traditions. This study addresses a critical gap in the early education scholarship by foregrounding the distinct experiences of Hmong educators, challenging dominant assumptions embedded in policy and practice, and offering culturally responsive recommendations to advance equity, visibility, and well-being within early education systems.
Infant-toddler (I/T) educators of color play a critical role in promoting culturally responsive early care and education for young children. However, this group of educators often experience discrimination and injustice in the workplace due to the intersection of their identities as both I/T educators and educators of color, which may interfere with their professional commitment and well-being. Additionally, in an inequitable environment, educators may experience reduced psychological safety and hesitate to express themselves. Because this group of educators is underrepresented in the existing literature, the current study solely focused on I/T educators of color and examined the direct and indirect associations between an equitable work environment (i.e., organizational justice and workplace discrimination) and professional commitment and well-being via psychological safety. The path analysis indicated that distributive justice was directly associated with professional commitment and well-being. Distributive and interactional justice and workplace discrimination were indirectly associated with commitment and well-being via psychological safety. Additionally, educators emphasized the need for more equitable compensation and benefits, recognition of their extra contributions, more resources for psychological well-being, and improving diversity and cultural competence among all staff. As one of the first studies to specifically examine educators of color in the I/T workforce, these findings suggest the importance of equitable and psychologically safe workplace environments in these educators’ professional commitment and well-being.
This study examined distributions and associations of psychosocial stimulation, caregiver distress, and early childhood education (ECE) enrollment with child development outcomes for two age cohorts (0-35 months (n = 1,366) and 36-72 months (n = 1,486)) of boys and girls in Pakistan. We conducted secondary analysis of data from a nationally representative phone survey of caregivers. For children aged 0-35 months, early child development was measured using the Caregiver-Reported Early Development Instrument (CREDI). For children aged 36-72 months, school readiness was measured using an adapted version of the Measuring Early Learning Quality and Outcomes (MELQO)-Measure of Development and Early Learning (MODEL) caregiver report. We observed no statistically significant gender differences in distributions of developmental outcomes or the three risk/protective factors. For children aged 0-35 months, lower caregiver distress (beta = -0.09, p < 0.001) and higher stimulation (beta = 0.54, p < 0.001) were associated with better early child development overall. However, on average, girls appeared more sensitive to psychosocial stimulation (girls: beta = 0.56, p < 0.001; boys: beta = 0.49, p < 0.001) and caregiver distress (girls: beta = -0.16, p < 0.001; boys: beta = -0.04, p = 0.138) than boys. Among 36-72 month-olds, psychosocial stimulation (beta = 0.31, p < 0.001) and ECE enrollment (beta = 0.38, p < 0.001) were positively associated with school readiness regardless of gender. Results highlight the importance of early learning and caregiving supports in the first six years, suggesting that girls aged 0-35 months in this sample may be particularly sensitive to caregiving environments marked by low stimulation and high caregiver distress.
The present study used parallel parent and teacher report measures to assess children's behavioral emotion regulation strategies across home and school contexts and examined their convergence with laboratory observations, as well as their associations with children's adjustment and independently observed classroom behavior. Participants were 82 preschool-aged children (ages 2-6 years; M = 4.58), their caregivers, and their teachers. Results indicated modest convergence between parent and teacher reports, alongside meaningful variability across settings, supporting the context-dependent nature of emotion regulation. Parents reported greater use of most strategies than teachers. However, distraction was reported at similar levels across contexts but was not correlated, suggesting that its form and function may differ across settings. Both parent and teacher reports were associated with children's social and behavioral adjustment in expected ways. In the classroom context, teacher-reported distraction, help-seeking, and emotional awareness were associated with teacher-child relationship quality and prosocial behavior. In contrast, parent-reported strategies were associated with better mental health and lower negative emotional reactivity. Across reporters, venting strategies were consistently linked to poorer caregiver-reported outcomes and less adaptive classroom behavior, highlighting them as potential targets for early intervention. Laboratory observations showed only modest correspondence with caregiver reports, suggesting that they may capture regulatory processes specific to novel contexts. Together, these findings underscore the value of multi-informant, multi-context approaches and highlight caregiver report as a scalable and ecologically valid complement to laboratory methods.
In 2003, a reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) mandated the referral of infants and toddlers involved with child welfare services (CWS) to Part C early intervention (EI) services. However, referrals and service engagement remain inconsistent. This study examined whether federal mandated referral legislation was associated with increases in EI service referral and engagement for CWS-involved infants and toddlers in Massachusetts. We also examined variation in referral and engagement patterns and the contextual factors associated with these patterns. Results showed that, prior to the passage of the federal mandate in FY2001, only 10% of qualified young children in Massachusetts were referred for EI services by CWS. When Massachusetts began implementing this policy in FY2012, associated referral rates increased to approximately 55%. However, statewide service engagement declined. Forty-six percent of qualified children referred by CWS engaged in EI services in FY2001, compared to 30% in FY2012. Overlap in catchment areas between CWS and EI programs was a significant predictor of increased EI referral and service engagement for CWS-involved children. Findings suggest that legislative mandates be paired with stronger cross-system alignment, specialized training, and dedicated funding. These supports are necessary to ensure that infants and toddlers are both referred to and engaged in early intervention services and to prevent downstream consequences of maltreatment.
This content analysis examined U.S. prekindergarten oral language state standards to illuminate the interactive, linguistic, and conceptual dimensions of children’s language development. We sought to examine the structure and organization of oral language standards as well as the guidance for setting-specific language practices and samples of children’s language. Our findings indicate the majority of states (n = 42) addressed all three dimensions, yet the conceptual dimension was substantially underrepresented, indicating potential missed opportunities for building children’s funds of language and knowledge. Enormous variation across standards regarding organization, instructional guidance, developmentally appropriate indicators and children’s language samples indicate the potential for substantial variability across programs and among states, which may impact children’s preparation for kindergarten and later academic success. We examine our findings in light of Neuman and Roskos (2005) review of prekindergarten standards to reflect the current state of state standards and provide practical suggestions for future use.
This study examined how different groups of families responded to participation in the Recipe 4 Success preventive intervention and what happened to families after the intervention ended. Recipe 4 Success was designed to promote parents’ sensitive scaffolding of toddlers’ self-regulation among families living in poverty. It was embedded within 12 weekly Early Head Start home visits and tested against usual practice home visits in a randomized controlled trial (N = 242 families; 37% white, 25% Black, 19% Latino, 17% Multiracial, 2% Asian American; median monthly income = $1,555). Latent profile analysis of observations of parent-child interactions identified three groups of families in which parents were relatively low, moderate, or high in sensitive scaffolding. Latent transition analysis revealed that 58% of the Recipe 4 Success parents who were in the Lower Sensitive Scaffolding profile at baseline transitioned to the Moderate Sensitive Scaffolding profile at post-intervention, compared to only 15% of control group parents who made a similar transition. Importantly, most families sustained the positive changes they made while participating in Recipe 4 Success throughout the nine months after the end of the intervention. As such, this study yields a nuanced understanding of who benefits from a new intervention and ways we can enhance home visits to better serve families living in poverty.
This study investigated the association between the quality of teacher-child interactions in toddler classrooms and children's numeracy, language, and literacy skills in toddlerhood and upon their entry into pre-primary education three years later. The numeracy, language, and literacy skills of 145 Finnish children (79 boys, 66 girls) were assessed in toddlerhood and again upon their entry into pre-primary education. The quality of teacher-child interactions in toddler classrooms (N = 43 classrooms) was evaluated using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) Toddler instrument, focusing on two domains-emotional and behavioral support, and engaged support for learning. Parents (N = 126) reported their education level and the frequency of informal home numeracy and literacy activities. The data were analyzed using longitudinal path models, controlling for the children's age, gender, parental education, frequency of informal home numeracy and literacy activities, and toddler skills in the same domain for longitudinal associations. The results indicate that engaged support for learning in toddler classrooms is positively associated with numeracy skills in toddlerhood but not upon entry into pre-primary education, while it is positively associated with language and literacy skills both in toddlerhood and upon their entry into pre-primary education. Therefore, policies concerning early childhood education for under-three-year-olds should prioritize supporting teachers' ability to deliver high-quality teacher-child interactions in toddler classrooms, given their relevance in developing children's foundational skills in toddlerhood and upon their entry into pre-primary education.
Parenting is a dynamic process that shapes preschoolers' socio-emotional adjustment, yet few longitudinal studies distinguish within-person changes from stable between-person differences when examining cooperation and aggression. Guided by emotion socialization theory, this study tested whether parental responsiveness and punishment were associated with Taiwanese preschoolers' cooperation and aggression and whether these associations were mediated by emotional competencies. Using four annual waves of national cohort data from 2,103 Taiwanese children (1,025 girls, 1,078 boys) aged 3-6 years, multilevel models separated within- from between-person variation. At the between-person level, higher parental responsiveness was associated with greater cooperation and lower aggression, whereas parental punishment was associated only with higher aggression. At the within-person level, increases in parental responsiveness predicted later increases in cooperation and decreases in aggression, whereas increases in parental punishment predicted the opposite pattern. Mediation analyses showed differentiated emotional pathways. For parental responsiveness, between-person mediation emerged through emotional expression and regulation for greater cooperation and through emotional awareness and regulation for lower aggression, whereas within-person mediation emerged only for increased cooperation through emotional expression, understanding, and regulation. For parental punishment, between-person mediation was limited and mixed, operating through emotional regulation for both lower cooperation and greater aggression and unexpectedly through emotional expression for greater cooperation, whereas no within-person mediation was supported. These findings extend emotion socialization theory by showing that parenting relates to preschoolers' social adjustment through distinct between- and within-person pathways and by clarifying the selective mediating role of emotional competencies in contemporary Taiwan.
This study uses mixed methods to examine how participation in a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) may support site leaders’ confidence, well-being, and quality improvement efforts. To address an important gap in the existing literature, the study includes the experiences of ECE leaders across settings, including home-based family child care (FCC) and family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) providers who are often overlooked in research and policy. QRIS supports examined in this study include an individualized coaching model, professional development, monetary stipends, and incentives for learning materials. Data include site leader survey data (n = 367), coach survey data (n = 26), and interview data from 10 case study sites. Findings suggest improvements in site leaders’ confidence, perceptions of stress, and site-level classroom quality in the context of QRIS participation, with qualitative themes illuminating the role of workplace relationships in supporting leaders’ well-being. Together, these findings suggest that QRIS may serve as a promising mechanism for supporting program quality and the well-being of the diverse leaders who drive it.
