Family Environment in Rural China and the Link with Early Childhood Development

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.