This study surveyed Chinese early childhood teaching and research officers, who are personnel specialising in teaching, research and guidance services within the early childhood education system. Using interviews and questionnaires and drawing on an 'onion' model which structured traits into hierarchical concentric circles, we built a theoretical competency model incorporating intrinsic motivation, professionalism, teaching guidance, research leadership, and coordination and innovation. This model demonstrated good reliability and validity. Then, descriptive statistics and latent profile analysis were used to examine the competencies of 634 teaching and research officers. The results revealed that these teaching and research officers generally perceived their competency at a medium level. Four latent profiles were identified, showing low, middle, upper-middle and high competency. Teaching and research officers with more preschool work experience or a relevant professional background were more likely to demonstrate higher-level competency. These findings provide theoretical insights into the competency structure of teaching and research officers and offer practical implications for enhancing systems of support for early childhood educators.

The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the immediate effects of screen content on preschool children's executive function. The study used a between-subjects experimental design, i.e. 2 (educational vs. non-educational) & times;2 (realistic vs. fantastical) & times;2 (younger vs. older), with 90 preschool participants. The main results indicated that neither the main effects of educational or fantastical content on EF nor their interaction effects were statistically significant, while there were significant interaction effects between educational content and age on children's performance of EF. Specifically, watching educational screen content led to greater immediate improvements in EF among young children compared with non-educational content, whereas this effect was not significant for older children. The findings highlight the importance of considering screen content and age when evaluating the effects of screen use on preschool children's executive function and inform content designers, educators, and caregivers to make evidence-based decisions about screen use for young children.

Social-emotional competence (SEC) is widely considered foundational for early academic development, yet the relative importance of its specific dimensions during the preschool years remains unclear. In this meta-analysis, 71 studies (N = 26,484) were synthesized using random-effects models. The analyses indicated stronger associations between early academic competence and both social awareness (r = 0.394) and self-regulation (r = 0.349), whereas the associations involving social skills (r = 0.285) and social problem-solving (r = 0.226) were relatively smaller in magnitude. Moderator analyses indicated that the association between self-regulation and academic competence varied by age, academic subject, and SEC measurement approach, and that the association between social problem-solving and academic competence was moderated by gender and age. These findings support a developmentally differentiated view of preschool SEC and highlight the importance of considering specific dimensions rather than global indicators. The results also offer practical insights for early childhood educators by identifying social-emotional competencies that are particularly relevant for supporting early learning in preschool classroom contexts.

This paper addresses the roles of job position in relation to early childhood leadership (ECL) and school type as a potential moderator of this relationship in China. A sample of 918 research participants, including 149 principals/vice-principals, 108 middle leaders and 661 teachers, was investigated. A three-factor model of ECL including staff management and development (SMD), peer learning and support (PLS) and communication with parents (CP) was used. By conducting linear regression analyses, it was found that the higher the job position an individual held, the more ECL practices he or she performed. The interaction terms (job position x school type) were statistically significant related to SMD and CP but not statistically significant related to PLS. In the case of public school type, the relationship between job position and CP became slightly negative. For private school type, however, it showed a curve-linear relationship. This paper indicates that teachers rarely participates in school-level decision-making due to the top-down management structure, especially in public preschools. It also suggests that the traditional preschool management system leads to preschool teachers in China are socialized as followers with no responsibilities outside classrooms.

Research Findings: A total of 4102 childcare center teachers were recruited to examine a moderated mediation model of the relationship between teachers' adaptive caregiving beliefs and professional competence, using caregiving sensitivity as a mediator and organizational support as a moderator. Results indicated that (1) childcare center teachers' adaptive caregiving beliefs were positively associated with their professional competence; (2) caregiving sensitivity mediated the relationship between adaptive caregiving beliefs and professional competence; and (3) perceived organizational support moderated the relationship between adaptive caregiving beliefs, caregiving sensitivity and professional competence. These findings are supported by social cognitive theory and provide new elements for the job demands-resources model as well. Practice or Policy: Our findings highlight possible avenues for interventions aimed at promoting professional competence in childcare center setting, such as improving teachers' adaptive caregiving beliefs, caregiving sensitivity, and perceived organizational support.

Patriotism is a topic of significant importance in many countries around the world. Preschool children play a crucial role in shaping the future, and their patriotism is closely linked to the future development of their nation. Currently, the game-based assessment has advantages over traditional evaluation methods and is more suitable for preschool children. This study employed a game-based assessment method to investigate patriotism among preschool children aged 3 to 6 years in China. The results indicated that their levels of patriotism were above average and tended to increase with age. Preschool children in the capital region scored higher on national cognitive mastery. However, preschool children’s understanding of patriotism remains somewhat vague, and they often articulate and express their patriotism through concrete examples. Four types of patriotism among preschool children were identified: high-level patriotism, cognitive-based patriotism, emotional-based patriotism, and low-level patriotism. The findings of this study contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of patriotism in preschool children and provide an evidence-based reference for the development of patriotic education.

Research Findings: With individuals’ increased access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in many places around the world, the definition of the digital divide has become more complicated than referring to differences in accessing technologies. As early childhood education (ECE) may impact children’s life-long learning and development, digital divides may cause differences in how individual children experience technology-related learning across settings and are therefore important for investigation. This qualitative study explores teachers’ practices of implementation of ICT in three kindergartens in China. Individual interviews and classroom observations were adopted to collect data. In light of concepts of the educational technology divide and glocalisation, this study locates participants’ ICT implementation practices in the local and global literature for an in-depth analysis. The study found that the educational technology divide does exist in teachers’ practices of ICT implementation, which may result in children’s different learning experiences. Additionally, this study found a hybrid of Chinese educational tradition and newly advocated educational ideas in participants’ practices of ICT implementation. Practice or Policy: The implications of the study are discussed to help accelerate the curriculum reforms in China’s ECE context in this digital era.

Based on the survey data of 4,739 infants and young children (IYC) under 3 years old, the study uses the propensity score matching (PSM) method to examine the role of family migration in infant and young child development (IYCD). The study finds that the development of migrant IYC is significantly behind that of non-migrant IYC in the real world situation. After controlling for confounders at the individual and family levels, there is no significant statistical difference in early development between migrant IYC and non-migrant IYC. Moreover, family migration does not play a significant role in IYCD in different subgroups after PSM. To protect the rights of migrant families and IYC in accessing public services, the Chinese government should build a social security policy system for migrant families and ensure starting point fairness for migrant IYC.

In the context of China’s three-child policy, more and more families have been changing from a one-child family to a two-child or three-child family. Both changes of family structure and the increase in child number may bring new challenges to children’s social development, emotion regulation, and parent–child relationship. This study aims to deal with the comparison of children’s emotion regulation for families with different child numbers and its relationship with parental emotion regulation and parental reactions to children’s negative emotions. We examined children’s emotion regulation, parental emotion regulation, and parental reactions to children’s negative emotions through a questionnaire survey. A total of 7807 parents from Guangdong Province in China participated in this study. The results show that: (1) A significant difference exists in children’s emotion regulation for families with different child numbers. Both one-child and two-child families present significantly higher children’s emotion regulation than three-child families; (2) There is a significant difference in parental emotion regulation, and supportive and non-supportive reactions in these families. The more children in each family, the worse the parental emotion regulation, the less supportive the reaction, and the more non-supportive the reaction; (3) Parental emotion regulation exerts a significant positive impact on children’s emotion regulation, and both supportive and non-supportive reactions play the partial mediating role. The findings emphasize more potential risks for children’s emotion regulation with the increase in family’s child number and suggest that special attention should be paid to children’s and parental emotion regulation in three-child families.

Generally beneficial kindergartens play a major role in the construction of pre-school education public service system.The development of generally beneficial kindergartens in China has made outstanding contributions to the realization of double goals of pre-school education and to the improvement of the downsides of generally beneficial resources.At the same time, the development of generally beneficial kindergartens is still facing the following problems such as prominent structural contradiction of resources, the coexistence of “shortage” and “surplus” phenomenon, the unbalanced financial investment, the need to optimize the investment benefit of generally beneficial kindergartens, obvious differences in the system of running kindergartens and uneven distribution of the quality of generally beneficial kindergartens.To improve the quality and efficiency of generally beneficial kindergartens under the background of high-quality development, we should adhere to the principle of quality and benefit going first, promote the structural reform, efficiency reform, dynamic reform and quality reform of generally beneficial kindergartens, and promote the high-quality and sustainable development of generally beneficial kindergartens.

The present study aimed to investigate the status and relationships between family support for infant and toddler care and parenting stress, and to explore differences related to the number of children in the families. We conducted a survey among 13,390 Chinese parents who were randomly sampled from six provinces of China. Descriptive analysis, multivariate analysis of variance, and regression analysis indicated that (1) current family support for infant and toddler care in China is insufficient; (2) most Chinese parents reported moderate parenting stress, with the highest scores given for parental distress, followed by difficult child, and parent–child dysfunctional interaction; (3) the larger the number of children in the family, the less the family support for infant and toddler care, the greater the parenting stress; (4) there was a difference between the effects of family support for infant and toddler care on relieving parenting stress among families with different numbers of children. These findings indicate that different types of family support for infant and toddler care should be provided for families with different numbers of children, to ease parenting stress and promote the implementation of the government’s current fertility policy.

This study examined the characteristics and profiles of early childhood teachers' job satisfaction and turnover intention in a sample of 1232 Chinese teachers and 1072 Singaporean teachers. We used descriptive statistics and latent profile analysis to conduct the research. The results indicated, first, that the extrinsic and overall job satisfaction of Chinese teachers scored significantly higher than that of Singaporean teachers, whereas the turnover intention of Chinese teachers was significantly lower than that of Singaporean teachers. Second, although Chinese teachers and Singaporean teachers were divided into three profiles regarding job satisfaction and turnover intention, there were significant differences in the proportion of each profile between the two samples. Third, significant differences were found in teachers' years of experience and education level in the three profiles of all samples. However, the differences in working hours, major, and marital status were only found to have an impact on the profiles of Chinese teachers, and the salary was associated only with Singaporean teacher profiles. Therefore, targeted measures should be implemented to enhance the stability of the teaching workforce both in China and Singapore. Our study builds on and extends existing research on cross-national characteristics of early childhood teachers' job satisfaction and turnover intention.

通过对幼儿园青年教师的情绪调节策略及工作满意度的调查发现,幼儿园青年教师情绪调节策略分为消极调节型、中度调节型、一般调节型和积极调节型四种类型;其中年龄越小、学历越低的青年教师更可能属于消极调节型;不同情绪调节策略类型教师的工作满意度存在差异,积极调节型教师工作满意度最高,中度调节型次之,一般调节型与消极调节型教师工作满意度有待提升.根据研究结果,建议加强幼儿园青年教师情绪调节能力培训,重点提高年轻教师与低学历教师的职业胜任力,并对不同情绪调节策略类型的教师给予针对性指导.

本研究对5006名高职早期教育专业学生的"四有"素养进行调查发现,学生"四有"素养总体水平不高,其中道德情操发展水平最低,次低是扎实学识发展水平,理想信念和仁爱之心相对发展较好但存在诸多不足.潜在剖面分析发现,学生"四有"素养存在良好型(26.8％)、中间型(63.3％)、失衡型(9.9％)三类,家庭所在地、招生类型、专业、年级是影响素养类型分布的重要因素.基于此,研究者建议积极探索高职院校培育"四有好老师"的关键之策.

近期,一则7岁女孩把4岁男童扔进井里的视频,令全网震惊.视频中,两人在村中水井旁玩耍时,女孩把男孩抱起,这时旁边的路上驶过一辆白色汽车,男孩挣脱了女孩,或者女孩放开了男孩.之后,两人离开水井没几米远,又折回井边,女孩再次把男孩高高抱起,并快速将男孩投入井中.此时男孩的身体虽然已经掉入井中,但求生的本能让他双手紧紧地扒住狭窄井口的边缘,并哭喊呼救.随后,女孩掰开小男孩抠着井沿的两只小手,让他掉入井中,自己转身离开了.

Research Findings: This study investigated children's feelings about school and their adaptation to primary school after leaving kindergarten. Altogether, 28,334 Chinese children (ages 6-8 years) were sampled and surveyed online. The descriptive statistic, latent class analysis (LCA) approach, and logistic regression analysis indicated that: (1) children generally had positive feelings toward school, especially about teacher-student relationships. However, the self-perception of academic abilities was less positive; (2) children's social adaptation had the highest scores, followed by life and physical adaptation, and then academic adaptation; (3) there were significant differences between children from only child and non-only child families both in school feelings and adaptation; (4) three latent classes of children's school adaptation emerged: the Well-Adapted Children were girls, only children in eastern China; the Moderately-Adapted Children were boys, non-only children in central China; the Poorly-Adapted Children were boys, non-only children in western China; and (5) children's school feelings significantly predicted their class membership for adaptation. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that we need to focus more on children's feelings and academic school adjustment issues. Targeted support is needed for children at risk of school adaptation to help them transition smoothly to primary school.

增强家庭育儿支持是实现"幼有所育"的重要内容.挪威高度重视父母育儿支持政策,出台了《安全的父母-安全的孩子:支持父母育儿国家战略规划(2018-2021)》,致力于帮助父母成为最好的照护者,强调父母共担育儿责任,重视回应特殊需要家庭的育儿需求等战略理念,以及通过休假制度、经费投入、信息和智力支持等多种举措,产生了积极效果.我国应着眼于婴幼儿照护服务体系建设的实际,因地制宜,鼓励探索形式多样的育儿假政策,完善支持政策体系;补短兜底,发挥政府的政策引导作用,完善育儿津贴制度;通过共建共享,多形式、广渠道推进跨界融合,支持父母育儿,帮助父母成为最好的照护者.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has entered a period of extremely low fertility and rapid aging, which poses a serious threat to its sustainable development [...]

Preschool children are at the initial stage of individual development and at a critical period in cultivating their approaches to learning. In the context of China's frequently adjusted birth policies, further research is necessary on children's approaches to learning in families of different sizes. A questionnaire survey was administered to 5454 only child and 4632 non-only child parents from the east, middle, and west of China. The study found that children's approaches to learning generally developed well, but non-only children's approaches to learning was significantly lower than those of only children. There are four profiles of approaches to learning for both the only children and the non-only children. This study also found that gender, social skills, family income, and type of preschool exert significant influences on children's approaches to learning. Parents' educational background had a significant influence on only children's approaches to learning but had no significant influence on non-only children's approaches to learning. We provide practical implications for promoting children's approaches to learning in families of different sizes.