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The goal of the present study is to examine differences in cognitive, psychomotor, and social-emotional development scores between only children and children with siblings aged 6–30 months in rural China using data of 1802 children across 351 villages in 174 townships, disaggregating according to child gender. The results indicate that having a sibling is negatively associated with cognitive, psychomotor, and socioemotional development for girls, but not for boys. Despite this, girls appear to be developmentally advantaged compared to boys, even when they have a sibling. Our results, however, are not conclusive regarding why only-girls are affected while boys are not affected by the existence of siblings. Parenting behaviours (such as playing with children, reading to children, reading to children with books, and singing to children), appear to be unrelated to the developmental differences between only-girls and girls with siblings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate the association between family environment and early childhood development among children aged 6–24 months in rural counties in China. To do this, we used cross-sectional data from a large scale survey, including 1809 child-caregiver dyads across 22 nationally designated poverty counties. We found that 53.95% of children were at the risk of cognitive development delay, 60.26%, 36.27%, 40.69% of children were at the risk of language, motor, and social-emotional development delay respectively. Moreover, the good quality of family environment was significantly associated with the child's development. Rural family environments are providing insufficient stimulation for children, especially a low variety of developmental enriching materials and lacking play activities. Our study confirms the need for programmatic interventions that provide reliable ways to learn how to play with their children and build a stimulating environment to improve early childhood development in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the developmental status of rural Chinese children, the extent of interactive parenting they receive, and the relation between the two. A sample of 448 six to eighteen-month-old children and their caregivers were randomly selected from two rural counties in Hebei and Yunnan provinces. According the third edition of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, 48.7% of sample children exhibited cognitive delays, 40.6% language delays, and 35% social-emotional delays. According to responses from caregivers, parenting in rural China is largely passive, lacking in interactive practices like storytelling, singing, and playing. Children-with-siblings, left-behind children, and children with less-educated mothers were even less likely to receive interactive practices. Children of caregivers who did engage in best parenting practices showed better cognitive, language, and social-emotional development; however, the public health system provides no platform for learning about optimal parenting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]