Research Findings: Prior research has demonstrated the importance of young children's executive functioning (EF) skills for their success in schooling and beyond. However, the field lacks an understanding of how children's EF skills manifest in context. In the present study, we relate children's classroom off-task behavior to their EF skills.…

Research Findings: This study examined the association between preschool children's social-emotional competence (SEC), defined by their social skills and problem behaviors, and numeracy skills. It also examined if any subdomains of SEC predicted preschool numeracy above and beyond latent social skills or problem behaviors variables. Data came from…

Research Findings: Letter name knowledge (LNK) is essential for a good start in learning to read. However, the literature shows conflicting results. Using an associative learning theory framework, the present study examined the influence of child and letter characteristics on LNK in French-speaking children. Children aged 3 to 5-6 years were asked…

Research Findings: Temperament, which can be assessed as early as 3 months, is associated with school readiness and later academic achievement in children born full term. Although children born preterm demonstrate a dysregulated temperament and are at significant risk for lower school readiness, we found no studies investigating whether early…

"Research Findings:" Although the importance of block play to children's spatial ability has been recognized globally, little is known about children's use of spatial frames of reference during spatial processing. This study investigated the intervention with guided block play to promote children's use of their intrinsic frame of…

"Research Findings:" This study examined the engagement of 494 preschool children in Sweden (M = 53.44 months, SD = 10.64) using both teacher questionnaires to measure global engagement (trait) and observations to measure momentary engagement (state). Using a person-oriented approach with cluster analysis, we identified five distinct…

This study examined the serial mediating effects of negative parenting and children's mastery motivation on the relationship between family socioeconomic status (SES) and internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in Chinese preschoolers. A sample of 669 Chinese children between 3 and 6 years (M[subscript age] = 4.83, SD[subscript age] =…

Research Findings: Parental supervision, parental risk perception, and parental risk attitudes constitute an important parenting environment for the development of young children. To examine the mechanisms of Chinese parenting environment on young children's risk-taking behaviors, this study first established a four-factor model and surveyed 497…

Research Findings: Emotion knowledge is one facet of social and emotional learning (SEL) that emerges in early childhood. Various interventions and measures target preschoolers' emotional skills to bolster these foundational competencies prior to formal schooling. One measure of emotion knowledge specifically with preschool children is the Affect…

Gender representation in children's books may influence young children's formation of the gender-equity concept. Previous studies show a male protagonist overrepresentation in US children's books. This study analyzed 956 Chinese children's books to investigate if similar patterns of gender representation exist. Research Findings: Binomial logistic…

This study aimed to examine the association between parent-grandparent co-parenting and children's self-control as well as the potential moderated mediation mechanisms. Participants were 367 children aged from 3 to 6 years from two public kindergartens in Shanghai and Guangzhou, China. Their mothers were asked to complete multiple questionnaires…

"Research Findings:" Early science skills predict later science achievement, and persistent achievement gaps in science appear as early as preschool. The current study compared the effectiveness of different instructional approaches for teaching preschoolers about sinking and floating and examined individual differences in learning.…

Research Findings: We tested whether a universal classroom peer pairing intervention -- "Buddy Up" -- would strengthen dyadic peer interactions among preschoolers (N = 140; M[subscript age] = 56.49 months; 53.6% boys; 77.9% Latinx). The "Buddy Up" intervention was informed by Intergroup Contact Theory, which specifies the…

Research Findings: Despite the fact that the universal two-child policy had a significant impact on family structure and parenting behaviors, there is still a paucity of study on the mechanisms underlying this policy's effects. This study explored the role of social competence and sibling presence in the relationship between maternal warmth and…

"Research Findings:" Pattern creation (PC) is creating a pattern unit based on children's own understanding of the concept of pattern, without being provided with a pattern unit as a reference, and the repetition of this pattern unit to create a complete structure. This study explored the performance and predictors of pattern creation…