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Whereas previous research has examined the role that parenting and home environments play in explaining the relation between family socioeconomic status and children's language development in the United States, relatively little is known about the associations between these constructs in other cultures. This study tested an integrated model of language development within a longitudinal data set of 1,894 socioeconomically diverse Korean children (48.35% girls;99% native-born Korean citizens) from the first year of life (age 3-8 months) to ages 3 and 6 years. A model integrating parent and environmental characteristics from the family stress model and the family investment model that also included maternal self-efficacy and knowledge of child development was shown to adequately explain the associations between family socioeconomic status and children's language development. Implications for applying similar integrated models in international contexts are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The rise of multi-site, field-based trials in early childhood research coupled with advances in statistics offer an unprecedented opportunity to understand how context affects children's wellbeing. In the current study, we chart our journey in exploring heterogeneity in the treatment effects of an existing large-scale evaluation to provide guidance for early childhood researchers interested in studying treatment impact variation. To do so, we employ data from a professional development intervention implemented in early childhood education programs across 9 U.S. cities. We generate three broad lessons on the challenges and opportunities in examining treatment impacts across sites. First, we find that using the right statistical approach – namely fixed intercepts, random coefficient (FIRC) modeling – is critical for generating accurate estimates of cross-site variation. Second, we find that measures that traditionally have been associated with average treatment effects (e.g., program dosage) can be used to predict treatment impact. Third, we acknowledge trade-offs in statistical power for detecting average treatment effects versus treatment impact variation and discuss the implications of these trade-offs for the future design of early childhood evaluations. Findings are discussed in terms of how treatment impact variation has the potential to advance early childhood research.

Introduction Digital parenting interventions could be potentially cost-effective means for providing early child development services in low-income settings. This 5-month mixed-methods pilot study evaluated the feasibility of using Afinidata, a comprehensive Facebook Messenger-based digital parenting intervention in a remote rural setting in Latin America and explored necessary adaptations to local context. Methods The study was conducted in three provinces in the Cajamarca region, Peru, from February to July 2021. 180 mothers with children aged between 2 and 24 months and regular access to a smartphone were enrolled. Mothers were interviewed three times in-person. Selected mothers also participated in focus groups or in-depth qualitative interviews. Results Despite the rural and remote study site, 88% of local families with children between 0 and 24 months had access to internet and smartphones. Two months after baseline, 84% of mothers reported using the platform at least once, and of those, 87% rated it as useful to very useful. After 5 months, 42% of mothers were still active on the platform, with little variation between urban and rural settings. Modifications to the intervention focused on assisting mothers in navigating the platform independently and included adding a laminated booklet with general information on child development, sample activities and detailed instructions on how to self-enrol in case of lost phones. Conclusions We found high access to smartphones and the intervention was well received and used in very remote areas of Peru, suggesting that digital parenting interventions could be a promising path forward for supporting low-income families in remote parts of Latin America., Archives of Disease in Childhood, 108 (6), ISSN:0003-9888, ISSN:1468-2044

ImportanceApproximately 1 in 4 women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) or nonpartner sexual violence during their lifetime. Mothers exposed to IPV are more likely to experience depressive symptoms and to discipline their children harshly, which may affect their children’s socioemotional development; however, there is limited evidence on these outcomes.ObjectiveTo examine the association between IPV, maternal depressive symptoms, harsh child discipline, and child stimulation with child socioemotional development.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis study used cross-sectional follow-up data collected from February 19 to October 10, 2014, from a birth cohort of children aged 18 to 36 months who were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of neonatal vitamin A supplementation in the Morogoro region of Tanzania. Data analysis occurred between September 10, 2019, and January 20, 2020.ExposuresLifetime experience of IPV was assessed using an abbreviated module of the Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey, maternal depressive symptoms were assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire, and data on harsh child discipline and maternal stimulation of their children were collected using modules of the United Nations Children's Fund Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey.Main Outcomes and MeasuresChild socioemotional development was measured by the Caregiver-Reported Early Childhood Development Instruments.ResultsA total of 981 mother-child dyads were included in the analytic sample; 388 children (39.6%) were between ages 18 and 24 (mean [SD] age, 27.06 [6.08]) months, and 515 (52.5%) were male children. A negative association was observed between maternal report of physical IPV only (mean difference, −0.022; 95% CI, −0.045 to −0.006) and physical and sexual IPV (mean difference, −0.045; 95% CI, −0.077 to −0.013) with child socioemotional scores, but neither was statistically significant after including depressive symptoms in the model, which is consistent with mediation. Furthermore, a negative association was observed between maternal mild to severe depressive symptoms and child socioemotional development, including adjustment for IPV (mean difference, −0.073; 95% CI, −0.103 to −0.043). Harsh disciplinary practices and stimulation were not associated with child socioemotional development after adjusting for IPV, maternal depressive symptoms, and other factors.Conclusions and RelevanceThe findings of this study suggest that maternal depressive symptoms may explain the negative association between IPV and child socioemotional development.

Observational data collected prior to the pandemic (between 2004 and 2019) were used to simulate the potential consequences of early childhood care and education (ECCE) service closures on the estimated 167 million preprimary‐age children in 196 countries who lost ECCE access between March 2020 and February 2021. COVID‐19‐related ECCE disruptions were estimated to result in 19.01 billion person‐days of ECCE instruction lost, 10.75 million additional children falling “off track” in their early development, 14.18 million grades of learning lost by adolescence, and a present discounted value of USD 308.02 billion of earnings lost in adulthood. Further burdens associated with ongoing closures were also forecasted. Projected developmental and learning losses were concentrated in low‐ and lower middle‐income countries, likely exacerbating long‐standing global inequities.

Despite global demand, the large-scale effects of social-emotional learning (SEL) programming in developing countries remain underexplored. Using a randomized control trial, this study examined the effectiveness of a school-wide SEL intervention-Programa Compasso (PC)-among 3,018 sociodemographically diverse, Portuguese-speaking children (Mage = 9.85 years) attending 90 public primary schools across Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2017. Average impacts of PC on children's executive function, emotion knowledge, and behavior problems after one school year were null. Moderation analyses did, however, reveal evidence for positive impacts of PC on children's labeling of emotional expressions and inhibitory control within low-homicide communities (d = 0.15 SDs), and null effects on these same outcomes in high-violence areas. Implementation and cultural considerations are discussed.

The Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI) are assessments tools for measuring the development of children under age three in global contexts. The present study describes the construction and psychometric properties of the motor, cognitive, language, and socio-emotional subscales from the CREDI’s long form. Multidimensional item factor analysis was employed, allowing indicators of child development to simultaneously load onto multiple factors representing distinct developmental domains. A total of 14,113 caregiver reports representing 17 low-, middle-, and high-income countries were analyzed. Criterion-related validity of the constructed subscales was tested in a subset of participants using data from previously established instruments, anthropometric data, and a measure of child stimulation. We also report internal-consistency reliability and test–retest reliability statistics. Results from our analysis suggest that the CREDI subscales display adequate reliability for population-level measurement, as well as evidence of validity.

Reflecting a burgeoning political interest in supporting young children around the world, global demand for reliable, valid, and scalable assessments of early childhood development (ECD) is on the rise. One of the more popular sets of tools for measuring the ECD of children under age 3 is the Caregiver Reported Early Development Instruments (CREDI), which includes both a long form for research and evaluation and a short form for population-level monitoring. In this commentary, we describe the goals and limitations of the CREDI, research to support its use as a population-level ECD instrument, as well as the major gaps in its evidence base. We also discuss how the work of Alderman and colleagues (in this issue) addresses some of these outstanding gaps, highlighting several critical areas for future research.

Mediation has played a critical role in developmental theory and research. Yet, developmentalists rarely discuss the methodological challenges of establishing causality in mediation analysis or potential strategies to improve the identification of causal mediation effects. In this article, we discuss the potential outcomes framework from statistics as a means for highlighting several fundamental challenges of establishing causality in mediation analysis, including the difficulty of meeting the key assumption of sequential ignorability, even in experimental studies. We argue that this framework—which, although commonplace in other fields, has not yet been taken up in developmental science—can inform solutions to these challenges. Based on the framework, we offer a series of recommendations for improving causal inference in mediation analysis, including an overview of best practices in both study design and analysis, as well as resources for conducting analysis. In doing so, our overall objective in this article is to support the use of rigorous methods for understanding questions of mechanism in developmental science.

This study estimates the effect of physical punishment on the cognitive development of 1,167 low-income Colombian children (Mage = 17.8 months old) using 3 analytic strategies: lagged-dependent variables, a difference-in-differences-like approach (DD), and a novel strategy combining matching with a DD-like approach. Across approaches, physical punishment at ages 9-26 months predicted reductions in children's cognitive development of 0.08-0.21 SD at ages 27-46 months. These results, plus null results of falsification tests, strengthen the argument that physical punishment leads to slower cognitive growth and illustrate the utility of alternative statistical methods to reduce problems of selection bias in developmental research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Theoretical models assume that parental knowledge about child development and caregiving motivates parental stimulation, shaping child development. Evidence supporting these models is scarce in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study tests the relations between maternal knowledge, stimulation, and child development in a Colombian sample of 1,277 low-income mothers and their children under the age of five. Mothers showed diverse knowledge about child development and caregiving. Moreover, maternal knowledge when children were 9-26 months old indirectly predicted growth in children's cognitive, receptive language, and gross motor skills at ages 27-46 months, partially through maternal engagement in stimulating activities with the child.

Prior work has conceptualized children's executive function and self-regulation skills as relatively stable across short periods of time. Grounded in long-standing contextual theories of human development, this study introduces a new observational tool for measuring children's regulatory skills across different naturally occurring situations within early childhood classrooms. Using 460 observations of 91 children (M age = 5.54 years) in 16 socio-demographically diverse Prekindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms, we found that this tool-the Regulation-Related Skills Measure (RRSM)-reliably captured observed dimensions of young children's attention control and inhibitory control, but failed to appropriately represent more "internal" regulatory processes (e.g., working memory). Associations between the RRSM and other measures of children's executive function and self-regulation (i.e., direct assessments, adult reports) were low to moderate (r = 0.03 to 0.44), suggesting these tools are likely to be complementary in that they provide overlapping but ultimately distinct information regarding children's regulatory performance. Finally, results suggested substantial within-child variation in regulatory behaviors across different situations within the classroom, with the same children demonstrating consistently stronger attention control and inhibitory control during transitions than during either teacher- or student-directed activities. These findings underscore the situationally-dependent nature of children's self-regulatory performance, with implications for both theory and practice. Future research is needed to replicate these findings in more diverse, representative samples of children.

Nurturing care is crucial for children's ongoing development during the pre-primary education period, or the next 1000 days of life. We generated nationally representative prevalence estimates of access to ten basic indicators of nurturing care among children aged 3-4 years in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).We applied multiple imputation and predictive modelling to data on children living in LMICs. Individual-level data on ten indicators were from UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and the Demographic Health Surveys Program, and we included data on all children aged 36 to 59 months for whom the surveys asked relevant questions on parenting and child development. We defined minimally adequate care as receiving at least one of two indicators in each of five dimensions of nurturing care: responsive caregiving, early learning, safety and security, nutrition, and health. We used a two-step multi-level multiple imputation procedure to address missing data across individuals, indicators, and countries. Using imputed datasets, we generated a set of expected-a-posteriori estimates of the percentage and overall number of children receiving each indicator of nurturing care, as well as overall minimally adequate care, for each country, country income grouping, and region, and across all LMICs. For the 54 countries with individual-level data on all indicators, we also produced subgroup estimates of nurturing care on the basis of household wealth, child sex, and urbanicity.We included individual-level data collected between 2005 and 2019 on 426 349 children aged 3-4 years in 104 LMICs. Across the 137 LMICs considered in our modelling, we estimated that 62·0 million (90% credible interval [CrI] 51·6-71·7) children aged 3-4 years, equivalent to 25·4% (90% CrI 21·2-29·4) of that age group in LMICs, were receiving minimally adequate nurturing care at the time of assessment, leaving 181·9 million (172·2-192·3) without adequate care. Access to care was highest for nutrition (86·2% [84·2-88·2], or 210·3 million [205·4-215·1], with healthy weight), and lowest for early learning (29·3% [21·5-39·6], or 71·5 million [52·5-96·6], in early childhood care and education), responsive caregiving (29·7% [25·6-34·9], or 72·4 million [62·4-85·0], experiencing adequate stimulation from non-maternal caregivers), and safety and security (32·3% [28·3-36·7], or 78·7 million [68·9-89·5], living without physical punishment). Gaps were evident in the estimates, with 50·8% (38·3-60·7) of children from upper middle-income countries receiving minimally adequate care compared with 5·6% (4·8-6·4) in low-income countries. Within 54 countries with complete child-level data, 10·7% (10·4-10·9) of children from households in the lowest wealth quintile had access to minimally adequate care compared with 41·2% (40·7-41·7) in the highest quintile. Inequalities were also large by urbanicity (17·7% [17·5-18.0] rural vs 32·2% [31·8-32.6] urban) but smaller by child sex (23·9% [23·6-24·2] girls vs 22·1% [21·9-22·4] boys).Most children in LMICs are not receiving minimally adequate nurturing care during the next 1000-day period. Further investments in indicator measurement and resources for preschool-age children are needed, particularly for low-income populations and in the domains of responsive caregiving, early learning, and safety and security.None.

* Abbreviation: TbT — : TipsByText Despite growing recognition of the foundational importance of the early childhood period, the persistence of significant socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic disparities in school readiness remains a challenge.1 This challenge is reflected in decades of program evaluations across multiple sectors revealing modest effect sizes, limited replication of promising interventions, and minimal evidence of significant impact at scale.2,3 In this issue of Pediatrics , Chamberlain et al4 address an important question facing pediatricians: What can be done in a primary care practice to strengthen the building blocks of literacy for children who are not reached by other programs? The contributions of this article fall within two categories. The first includes the findings of the TipsByText (TbT) evaluation. The second, and arguably the more instructive, includes the questions that the study leaves unresolved. The premise for this investigation is based on the proposition that young children’s access to primary health care in the United States is near universal, thus offering an opportunity to engage families who are difficult to reach through other services (eg, preschool). The rationale for testing … Address correspondence to Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 50 Church St, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: jack_shonkoff{at}harvard.edu

This study explores children's early academic and self-regulatory skills as potential pathways through which a preschool enrichment program-the Chicago School Readiness Project (CSRP)-may contribute to low-income children's long-term outcomes (N = 466; Mage at baseline = 4.10 years). We find that CSRP's impact on high school grades may be partially explained by early gains in vocabulary and math skills. Although impacts on high school executive function (EF) were more equivocal, our results suggest that early improvements in math skills attributable to the intervention may, in turn, predict long-term gains in EF skills. These results complement the existing literature on preschool fade out, while also shedding light on the cross-domain relations between academic and self-regulatory skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on reading acquisition is conducted in high-income countries, and the majority of the limited research from middle- and low-income countries focuses exclusively on school settings. We therefore know little about how home literacy environments (HLEs) relate to early reading skill acquisition in low-resource settings. This study uses baseline data from 18 Save the Children (SC) project sites across 14 countries in Central America, Asia, and Africa to address several questions. First, we examine the structure of HLE in the data set, with a particular focus on its relationship to socioeconomic status (SES). Second, we extend our measurement model to examine the relationship between HLE and early literacy skills across the sample of more than 14,000 first- and second-grade boys and girls (mean age: 8.4 years) from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. We conclude that SES, home reading behaviors, and home reading materials are separate, though related constructs, and that materials in the home are a moderately strong predictor of early reading in these contexts. Our findings indicate that studies investigating literacy environments in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) should clearly and distinctly conceptualize SES, literacy behaviors, and literacy materials. In addition, the robustness of the relationships between the presence of reading materials in the home and children’s early literacy skills suggests that increasing access to these materials may enhance skill development in low-resource contexts.

Children from low-income families often enter kindergarten academically behind their higher income peers. Recent findings also indicate gaps in social-emotional aspects of school readiness, raising...

Although professional development is widely used to improve the impacts of early childhood education, little is known about the conditions under which such interventions promote child outcomes. This study applies newly developed methods for quantifying intervention impact heterogeneity to understand whether educators' collective workplace stress moderates professional development's impacts on children's language and literacy skills, executive functioning, and learning behaviors. Within a sample of 406 children from the National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education Professional Development Study (Mage = 4.17; 50% female; 50% Black, 32% Latinx, 11% White), professional development positively impacted child outcomes in centers where educators collectively reported high workplace stress but negatively impacted child outcomes in centers where educators collectively reported low workplace stress.

The neighborhood literature consistently documents associations between neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and child development. Yet, this approach may miss important heterogeneity in neighborhood resources (e.g., libraries, doctors' offices) that have important implications for children. Moreover, the mechanisms that explain the relation between neighborhood characteristics and child outcomes are poorly understood. Using a sample of 955 children situated in preschool neighborhoods across nine United States cities, the present study aimed to (1) describe the relation between neighborhood SES and resources among our sample neighborhoods and (2) explore whether neighborhood SES and resources may be (a) independently and (b) jointly associated with young children's gains in language/literacy and executive function skills via differences in preschool classroom process quality. Our results suggested that neighborhoods were heterogeneous in both SES and resources, thereby indicating a diverse range of resource availability among lower SES neighborhoods. Moreover, we found that both neighborhood SES and resources were individually associated with benefits to children's development through levels of classroom process quality and that these associations were magnified in communities that were particularly high in both SES and resources. These findings point to potential policy levers at both neighborhood and classroom levels to support children's development.

This study examined the theory of change of the ACT Raising Safe Kids parenting program, including whether intervention effects on children's behavior problems were explained by improvements in mothers' reported parenting practices, as well as whether baseline child behavior problems moderated these relations. Adult mothers of 3-to 8-year-old Brazilian children were assigned to the intervention (n = 97) or control (n = 46) groups. Results showed that the intervention improved mothers' perceptions of their parenting practices (positive discipline, emotional and behavioral regulation, and communication). Intervention-induced reductions in children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems were mediated by improvements in mothers' emotional and behavioral regulation. Program effects were strongest for children with high levels of baseline behavior problems.

About 250 million children under age five are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential due to continued exposure to ill health, malnutrition and lack of appropriate learning environments. A large number of initiatives have been launched in recent years to support early childhood development, with home visiting programs increasingly being recognized as a key strategy for improving child wellbeing. However, the most effective ways to reach families in low income settings remain unclear due to the large expense associated with personal family visits. In this project, we assess the effectiveness and equity of a newly developed digital platform designed to deliver evidence-based, individualized parenting support through automated services. The Afinidata platform uses state-of-the art machine learning algorithms to allow caregivers to get answers to questions about child health and development, while also identifying and promoting age- and development-appropriate activities for parents to support their children. We will collaborate with partners in Peru to rigorously assess the reach, impact and cost effectiveness of this digital platform in a poor rural population through a randomized controlled trial. Our work will follow a mixed-methods evaluation approach with repeated feedback into the Afinidata system. A total of 2,400 newborns will be enrolled in a randomized controlled trial in San Marcos, Peru, and followed up for two years. The primary study outcome will be children's healthy development at 24 months of age assessed through the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III). Secondary outcomes will be systems utilization, program coverage and cost-effectiveness, as well as caregiver satisfaction. If proven effective, this innovative digital platform may increase global access to low-cost parental support -a widely recognized key strategy for improving child well-being.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Previous research has demonstrated associations between maternal experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and a range of adverse outcomes among women and their young children. However, few studies have examined the associations between maternal experience of IPV and early child development (ECD) outcomes in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Our objectives in this study were to examine the association between IPV victimization and ECD and assess whether the association was mediated by maternal and paternal stimulation. METHODS: We combined cross-sectional data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for 15 202 households representing mothers and fathers of children aged 36 to 59 months in 11 LMIC. We used multivariable linear regression models to estimate the association between IPV victimization in the year preceding the survey and ECD, which we measured using the Early Child Development Index. We used path analysis to determine if the association between IPV victimization and ECD was mediated through maternal and paternal stimulation. RESULTS: After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, IPV victimization was negatively associated with ECD (β = −.11; 95% confidence interval = −.15 to −.07). Path analysis indicated that the direct association between IPV victimization and ECD was partially and independently mediated through maternal and paternal stimulation. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that include components to prevent IPV may be effective for improving ECD in LMIC.

A number of different approaches are currently used for assessing young children's executive function (EF) and self-regulation (SR) skills. Nevertheless, guidance for stakeholders aiming to assess EF and SR in real-world settings (e.g., preschool classrooms) is currently lacking. In the present article, I review the properties, strengths, and weaknesses of three common approaches to EF and SR measurement: direct assessments, adult reports, and observational tools. Building on this general review, I next highlight several considerations specific to EF and SR measurement of young children in everyday contexts. In particular, I consider the ecological validity, interpretability, and scalability of each approach to EF and SR measurement, concluding with future directions for research.

OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that child diet and maternal responsiveness mediated the effects of an integrated responsive stimulation (RS) and enhanced nutrition (EN) intervention on child growth and development. METHODS: We used data from the Pakistan Early Child Development Scale-up (PEDS) cluster-randomized controlled trial which evaluated the effectiveness of the Lady Health Worker (LHW) Program in rural Pakistan from 2010–2012. LHWs were randomized into one of four intervention arms (20 LHWs each): (1) RS: UNICEF-WHO Care for Child Development package (locally adapted), (2) EN: EN education and multiple micronutrient powders for children 6–24 mo, (3) RS + EN, and (4) Control. LHWs delivered the interventions in routine monthly home visits and group sessions. Mother-child pairs were enrolled form birth to 24 mo (N = 1324). Primary outcomes were child growth (assessed with length-for-age Z-score (LAZ)) and development (assessed with the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition) at 12 and 24 mo. We examined whether child diet (assessed with the WHO indicator for minimum acceptable diet) and maternal responsiveness (assessed with the Observation of Mother-Child Interaction tool) at 12 mo mediated intervention effects at 24 mo. Structural equation modelling was used to estimate the total, direct and indirect (via child diet and maternal responsiveness) intervention effects on child growth and development at 24 mo. RESULTS: The RS, EN and RS + EN interventions improved cognitive, language and motor development at 24 mo, but had no significant effect on LAZ and socio-emotional development. Child diet and maternal responsiveness mediated intervention effects on cognitive development, whereas maternal responsiveness alone mediated intervention effects on language and motor development. Despite the lack of significant total intervention effects on LAZ and socio-emotional development, there were significant positive indirect effects on LAZ via maternal responsiveness and child diet, and on socio-emotional development via maternal responsiveness. CONCLUSIONS: Child diet and maternal responsiveness are two important mechanisms which mediated the effect of a RS and EN intervention on child growth and development. Leveraging these mechanisms can help enhance the effectiveness of RS and EN interventions. FUNDING SOURCES: None.

• After decades of program implementation and evaluation, the early childhood education (ECE) field needs to move towards more effective and efficient strategies. One tool that has been developed to support this shift is theory of change (TOC). Though TOCs have been widely recognized for their potential utility, the extent to which they have been employed consistently in ECE research is unclear. In this paper, we draw upon a comprehensive, systematically developed archival database of high-quality ECE evaluations (N = 277) conducted over nearly five decades (1960–2007) to explore how the field has historically described and measured TOCs. We find that some components of TOCs have been used widely, and also that evaluators have increasingly measured implementation fidelity and standardization of program strategies over time. However, we additionally find that most ECE research has yet to move beyond the investigation of overall impacts towards more precise explanations of causal pathways. Instead, it remains common to focus on understanding whether a program is “effective” but relatively rare to explore how, why, for whom, and under what conditions an ECE program does or does not work.

The present study examined the relationships between caregivers’ self-reported positive and negative emotional expressiveness, observer assessments of children’s emotion regulation, and teachers’ reports of children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors in a sample of 97 primarily African American and Hispanic Head Start families. Results indicated that higher caregiver negativity and lower child emotion regulation independently predicted more internalizing behavior problems in children. Additionally, children’s externalizing behavior problems were negatively predicted by caregivers’ self-reports of positive emotional expressiveness. Importantly, results also suggested that caregivers’ emotional expressiveness and children’s behavioral problems may be non-linearly related, and that child gender may play an important moderating role. These results emphasize the importance of family emotional climate and child emotion regulation in the behavioral development of preschool-age children, and highlight the need for improved theoretical and practical understanding of socioemotional development in diverse populations.

Recent international development efforts have emphasized the importance of supporting early childhood development, yet little is known about the availability of early learning opportunities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The present study uses nationally representative data from >163,000 three- and four-year-olds living in 63 countries to estimate the availability of in- and out-of-home early learning opportunities in LMICs. Results suggest that 71.9% of preschool-aged children experience high levels of at-home stimulation (e.g., reading, counting, drawing), 33.6% attend center-based early childhood care and education (ECCE) programming, 29.1% experience both, and 22.9% experience neither. Large geographical and socioeconomic disparities in learning opportunities were found both across and within countries, particularly for ECCE.