Early Childhood Research Quarterly最新文献

{"title":"Psychometric properties of the early number competence test in chinese preschool children: A one-year longitudinal study","authors":"Xiangzi Ouyang ,&nbsp;Xueliang Chen ,&nbsp;Xiao Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present study examined the psychometric quality of the newly developed Early Number Competence Test (ENCT) among Chinese preschool children aged five to six years. The ENCT measures children’s number competencies in eight domains (i.e., number–word comparison, counting, set comparison, digit comparison, word problems, number writing, nonverbal calculation, and basic arithmetic concepts). The test was administered to 299 children (mean age = 57.29 months, SD = 5.05 months) three times from the second semester of their second preschool year (Time 1) to the second semester of their third preschool year (Time 3), with a six-month interval between adjacent time points. The results from the item response models showed that all the items were of medium difficulty on average and that discrimination power was moderate to high. Additionally, all the items functioned equally well over time and were fair to both boys and girls. The factor analysis showed that a three-dimensional model that included numbering, relations, and arithmetic operations best fitted the data. This factor structure was stable across the first two time points, but not from Time 1 to Time 3. Finally, children’s numbering, relation, and arithmetic operation skills at Time 1 were moderately correlated with their written computation one year later. Overall, the ENCT exhibited sound psychometric properties that were supported by various forms of validity evidence, making it a promising tool for measuring the number competencies of young Chinese children.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 134-144"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145938535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What children get overlooked? The distribution of teachers’ attention in early childhood education: a mobile eye-tracking study","authors":"Thibaut Duthois ,&nbsp;Ruben Vanderlinde ,&nbsp;Piet Van Avermaet ,&nbsp;Maribel Montero Perez","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There is growing evidence that teacher-child interactions in early childhood education (ECE) classrooms are not evenly distributed among all children. This study used mobile eye tracking with fifty teachers and 250 children to examine teachers’ allocation of attention during formal and informal classroom activities in which these teacher-child interactions occur. Attention was operationalized as the number of seconds that the teachers’ gaze was directed towards a certain child (i.e., dwell time). Results indicate that teachers do not distribute their attention equally among the children during formal and informal activities, suggesting that not all children have the same level of access to teacher-child interactions. Negative binomial models indicate that the received attention of children can be predicted based on teachers’ perceptions and expectations of child characteristics (i.e., language development, speaking confidence, socio-economic background, and language background). This study shows that linguistically vulnerable (i.e., low speaking confidence, low language proficiency, multilingual) children are most often overlooked in the early childhood classroom. These insights contribute to both research and ECE teacher professional development, highlighting the importance of considering ‘the recipient’ in teacher-child interactions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 109-119"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pre-kindergarten classroom experiences and child outcomes through first grade","authors":"Margaret Burchinal ,&nbsp;Robert Pianta ,&nbsp;Arya Ansari ,&nbsp;Mary Bratsch-Hines ,&nbsp;Lora Cohen-Vogel ,&nbsp;Christina Stephens ,&nbsp;Ellen Peisner-Feinberg ,&nbsp;Virginia Vitiello ,&nbsp;Jessica Whittaker","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Pre-kindergarten (PK) and other public preschool programs are viewed as valuable policy options for equipping children with skills that help them succeed in school (<span><span>White House, 2023</span></span>). Public investments have enabled these programs to expand, and evaluations consistently indicate they improve school readiness skills by the end of PK and the start of kindergarten (<span><span>Phillips et al., 2017</span></span>). However, studies of PK provide mixed evidence for the extent to which those gains are maintained in the elementary grades relative to children who did not attend PK (<span><span>Abenavoli, 2019</span></span>; <span><span>Burchinal et al., 2024</span></span>; <span><span>Lipsey, 2024</span></span>). Explanations for convergence in the academic skills between PK attenders and nonattenders abound with limited supporting evidence. Despite intense focus on identifying the factors responsible for convergence, few of the studies that follow PK attenders over time take their elementary school classroom experiences – namely, the quality of PK teacher-child interactions and specific teaching practices – into account. By leveraging longitudinal data of PK attenders from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded Early Learning Network (ELN) sites in Virginia and North Carolina, the present study examines unique and enduring predictive associations between classroom experiences and annual gains in child outcomes while accounting for the potential concurrent benefits of classroom experiences in each of the two years following PK.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 120-133"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Access to early care and education for Nevada’s infants and toddlers: A mixed methods examination of program characteristics and the role of COVID stabilization funds","authors":"Gerilyn Slicker,&nbsp;Alain Bengochea,&nbsp;Melissa Stoffers,&nbsp;Leticia Delgado,&nbsp;Amanda Zapata,&nbsp;Priscila Hernandez Anaya,&nbsp;Emmanuel Ayitah","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The earliest years of life, particularly through children' s third year of life, are the single most consequential for development, and interactions that take place in early learning environments shape lifelong development. Yet, access to early care and education is critically low nationwide, with particularly troubling infant and toddler enrollment rates in Nevada. This statewide mixed methods study explored multidimensional access to child care and early education for Nevada’s infants and toddlers, relying on a statewide survey of licensed center- and home-based programs across Nevada (n=261) paired with qualitative interview data with a subset of program directors that completed the survey (n=39). Quantitative results suggest the importance of funding sources (e.g., child care subsidies) for infant and toddler access, while qualitative results help to enhance our overall understanding of infant and toddler enrollment decision-making processes of early education providers by emphasizing the importance of home-school communication and early learning environments that can nurture infants’ and toddlers’ development. Integrated findings highlight the centrality of limited public funding and resources supporting infant and toddler access, but point to the potential of temporary COVID stabilization programs in increasing access to early learning for Nevada’s youngest learners.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 84-96"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145785987","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Questioning the equitable well-being of BIPOC ECE professionals in head start","authors":"Allison Sterling Henward,&nbsp;Yue Qi","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Racialized disparities remain alive and well in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). This article uses concepts of justice and wellness to examine the impact of increasingly standardized ECEC approaches, including the field's growing reliance on QRIS (Quality Rating Improvement System) on women of color. Drawing from a four-site ethnographic study of Head Start policy making and negotiation, we examined wellness and justice as crucial concerns among the Head Start workforce. Critical intersectional and transnational feminist labor theory frames our comparative analysis. It demonstrates that women of color must endure and expend considerable physical, intellectual, and emotional labor to combat increased standardization and ensure children's thriving and survivance. However, this degree of labor expenditure was not demonstrated within the white community. Addressing the field's adherence to large- scale commercialized curricula and quality rating systems, we offer concrete steps forward- including accounting for this inequity in policy language and, most importantly, increased pay for this unseen and unremunerated labor.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 97-108"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145839467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How associations between executive function and early academic skills may have been missed: A quantile regression approach","authors":"Dieuwer ten Braak ,&nbsp;Nicolai T. Borgen","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses residualized quantile regression modeling to investigate how aspects of executive function (self-regulation and working memory) differentially predict mathematics, vocabulary, and phonological awareness for children with various levels of these skills. This approach addresses the limitations of traditional linear regression, which overlooks variations in associations at different points in the skill distribution. The study utilized longitudinal data from 243 children (M_age = 5.79, 49% female), assessed in kindergarten and first grade. Self-regulation was measured with the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders task, and working memory with the Digit Span. The quantile regression findings indicate rather stable associations between self-regulation/working memory and mathematics for children across the mathematics proficiency distribution, largely reflecting traditional linear coefficients. However, traditional linear regression misses out on important associations with vocabulary and phonological awareness. That is, working memory predicted vocabulary specifically at the low end of the distribution across kindergarten and first grade, while both working memory and self-regulation’s predictive power for phonological awareness shifted from the high end of the distribution in kindergarten to the low end in first grade. The study highlights the importance of considering that executive function’s involvement in academic skills may fluctuate depending on the specific aspect of executive function, the child's developmental stage, and the type of academic skill. Quantile regression provides a nuanced understanding of these relationships, revealing that traditional linear regression may miss critical information. The findings suggest that interventions targeting executive function may be specifically beneficial for children who struggle with language and literacy skills, particularly in first grade.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 201-213"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146048484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Estimating need for nonparental care: An approach to refining measurement of child care demand","authors":"Jess Carson ,&nbsp;Rebecca Glauber","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2026.01.003","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2026.01.003","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>What is the extent of demand for nonparental child care in the contemporary United States? Despite a large body of research, scholars and policymakers have failed to capture the complexity of child care demand and adequately answer this question. Previous research has almost uniformly proxied demand as the number of young children, not yet in school, whose parents are in the labor force. The current study is one of the first to harmonize four nationally representative data sources to simultaneously account for a host of parental needs and decisions. Drawing on data from the American Community Survey (ACS), the Early Childhood Program Participation Survey, the Household Pulse Survey, and the National Survey of Early Care and Education, we find that a large share of parents who are not employed use nonparental care, and sizeable shares do not work because of problems with child care or have searched and failed to find adequate child care. Estimates that fail to include these parents underreport child care demand. Additionally, estimates of child care demand may be upwardly biased by parents who are employed but do not search for care and parents who work staggered shifts but do not use care. Accounting for all these factors simultaneously results in an estimate of child care demand that is larger than the traditional estimate. Thus, while the conventional estimate from the ACS remains a valuable proxy for practitioners and policymakers, it may systematically underestimate the extent of childcare demand in the contemporary United States.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 190-200"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146000877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Home literacy and numeracy precursors of Chinese kindergarteners’ early literacy and mathematics achievements","authors":"Han Yuan ,&nbsp;Tijs Kleemans ,&nbsp;Eliane Segers","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.11.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.11.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examined the stability and change in the home learning environment and its longitudinal relationships with children’s literacy and mathematics achievements in mainland China. In addition, we explored the cross-domain relations of the home literacy environment and early mathematics. One hundred and twenty-nine kindergarten children were assessed on early literacy (syllable/tone awareness and Pinyin knowledge) and mathematics skills in kindergarten 2 (K2) and 3 (K3), and their parents completed a questionnaire on the home learning environment in K2 and K3. Results showed a significant correlation between the home learning environment from K2 and K3, indicating stability. There was an increase in Chinese writing/speaking activities, digital home literacy activities, traditional home numeracy activities, and parental expectations. In contrast, there were no increases in informal home literacy activities and digital home numeracy activities. Chinese writing activities in K2 and K3 predicted children’s Pinyin knowledge in K3. Parental numeracy expectations predicted early mathematics skills in K3. Finally, a cross-predictive role of Chinese writing activities in basic arithmetic skills was shown. These findings contribute to the research by indicating that home activities focusing on the codes of written language are more beneficial for literacy development than activities centered on speaking for Chinese children. Exposure to writing experience could also enable a promotion in early mathematics. Furthermore, parental numeracy expectations were a unique predictor of early mathematics skills. Our findings provide support that the home learning environment is related to children’s early academic skills and suggest that this relationship is shaped by cultural context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145448683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Rural Chinese preschool children’s school liking: Examining its relational correlates and longitudinal relations to early academic skills","authors":"Hao Li ,&nbsp;Xiao Zhang ,&nbsp;Nan Xiao ,&nbsp;Ying Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.002","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2025.12.002","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>School liking has long been considered critical to school-aged children’s social adjustment and academic performance; however, limited empirical research has explored the predictors and outcomes of school liking among preschool children. Additionally, there is scant evidence concerning these dynamics among children from families with low socio-economic backgrounds. This longitudinal study investigated whether parent- and teacher-child relationships were associated with school liking and whether school liking was further related to early academic skills among a sample of rural Chinese preschool children. A total of 247 children participated and were followed up for three years. Children reported their school liking and the quality of their relationships with parents and teachers and were tested individually on word reading, receptive vocabulary, and mathematical achievement. Results showed that parent- and teacher-child warmth were positively associated with school liking, while parent- and teacher-child conflict were negatively associated with school liking. School liking was positively associated with word reading but not with receptive vocabulary or mathematical achievement. Our findings underscore the importance of rural Chinese preschool children’s school liking in the development of children’s early academic skills and emphasize the roles of parent- and teacher-child relationships in shaping children’s school liking. Practical implications are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 60-70"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145747702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fathers’ Engagement with and perceptions of child play: Evidence from the Rohingya camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh","authors":"Fatima Tuz Zahra ,&nbsp;Shikhty Sunny ,&nbsp;Sneha Bolisetty ,&nbsp;Hirokazu Yoshikawa ,&nbsp;Yeshim Iqbal ,&nbsp;Sharon Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2026.01.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecresq.2026.01.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on father engagement is heavily focused on Western families. Western-based programs to support fathers often do so in an individualistic manner, failing to address cultures in places where collective care is common. Limited existing research on fathers’ involvement in play emphasizes the influence of income and working status on fathers’ views on play. Overall, there is very little research on fathers' perceptions of play in refugee contexts, and there is no extensive study exploring this topic in the Rohingya context. In this context of forced displacement, we ask the following research question about the Rohingya fathers' perceptions of play.</div><div>Research Question:</div><div>How do fathers perceive children’s play in both structured (Humanitarian Play Labs) as well as unstructured (home and surrounding areas) play settings in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh?</div><div>Methodology:</div><div>In this research, we employed two different approaches to data collection:</div><div>Semi-structured interviews consisted of 25 Rohingya fathers aged between 23 and 48, all of which had one child in BRAC’s 0-6 early childhood age range. Interviews consisted of questions related to playing with child, discipline/behavior management, and child participation in Humanitarian Play Lab (HPL) programs.</div><div>Child Point-of-View Observations included 61 focal children and recorded 5-minute observations with the aim of recording experiences from the child’s point of view, and focused on ways children socialize with other children and adults.</div><div>Findings:</div><div>Results from the study suggest that fathers spend more time with children post-forced displacement allowing them to keenly observe their children’s play, their interaction with peers and play objects in the surroundings and associated behaviors, supported by observations from children’s points of view. Our findings emphasize a key concern among all fathers in the study – specific to this humanitarian context – is safety and security of children at play in the camp settings. In our research, we provide a number of recommendations for fathers’ active involvement in existing child development programs to enhance children’s socioemotional development and socialization through play.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48348,"journal":{"name":"Early Childhood Research Quarterly","volume":"75 ","pages":"Pages 180-189"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146000878","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}