Research Findings: Preschool social-emotional education has become an increasingly important area of research and practice in mainland China. The social development domain has been recognized as an independent preschool curricular domain since 2001. Little is known, however, about the specific practices that preschool teachers in China are using…

Research Findings: Empathy, or the ability to understand what others are thinking or feeling, can be observed in early developmental stages. The purpose of this study was to validate the Spanish version of the Empathy Questionnaire (EmQue) and examine its longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) at 2 time points. Parents of 103 children completed…

Research Findings: This study considered the interplay between infant temperament and maternal caregiving behaviors in relation to early language. A total of 118 mother-infant dyads participated in the study. Mothers rated infant positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA), and maternal behaviors were coded during a free-play task when infants…

Research Findings: The current study analyzed the relation between the amount of mathematical input that preschool children hear (i.e., math talk) from their mothers in their homes and their early math ability a year later. Forty mother-child dyads recorded their naturalistic exchanges in their homes using an enhanced audio-recording device (the…

Research Findings: Drawing from a diverse community sample of 89 children, ages 4-6, their primary caregivers and teachers, this study examined the interplay of child emotional behavior problems, parent emotion socialization practices, and gender in predicting teacher-child closeness. Teachers reported on perceptions of closeness with children.…

By adapting a self-administered assessment of coparenting, we sought to provide a new tool, the Cocaring Relationship Questionnaire, to measure parent-teacher, or cocaring relationships, and provide additional construct validity for the multidimensional concept of cocaring. Next, recognizing the importance of parental involvement for young…

Research Findings: The present study investigated the social and cognitive precursors of vocabulary knowledge in 239 Turkish preschoolers both concurrently (Time 1 [T1] Mage = 53.29 months, SD = 10.19) and subsequently 1 year later (Time 2 [T2] Mage = 65.40 months, SD = 10.55). We examined the role of parenting behaviors by focusing on emotional…

The present study used hierarchical linear modeling to examine predictors of students' emotional and behavioral difficulties in preschool classrooms. Specifically, the study examined (a) the link between teachers' perceptions of their own emotional intelligence and students' emotional and behavioral difficulties, (b) the link between teachers'…

Research Findings: The current study is an examination of children's temperament as a predictor of their interactions with peers in preschool, with a particular focus on children's regulatory temperament characteristics (i.e., inhibitory control and attentional focusing) as moderators of associations between shyness and interactions with peers.…

Research Findings: The present study examined the amount of exposure to math activities that children of low socioeconomic status (SES) encounter in private community-based preschool classrooms and whether greater time in these activities predicted higher math skills. Three cohorts of 4- to 5-year-old children were recruited from 30 private…

Research Findings: Early childhood teachers' psychological well-being influences the nurturing and learning classroom climate in early care and education as well as children's development. However, less is known about predictors of teachers' psychological well-being in preschool. The purpose of this study was to explore associations between…

The 'terrible twos' are often associated with increased temper tantrums, noncompliance and aggression. Although some expression of these behaviors is normal, whether early individual factors can predict which children are most at risk of frequent or prolonged emotional and behavioral problems is of increasing interest. The current study of 6,067…

Research Findings: This study examined how parenting styles and child social-emotional functioning may help explain the indirect relations between Chinese parents' expectations for their preschool-age children's social-emotional development and their children's preacademic skills. A total of 154 parents with preschool-age children were recruited…

Research Findings: Early mathematical skills and knowledge are strongly related to long-term achievement, and yet the knowledge base regarding the mechanisms through which young children develop these skills and knowledge is limited. Although research has examined the relation of the home numeracy environment and children's early mathematics…

Research Findings: The present study examined associations between children's classroom interactions and teachers' perceptions of teacher-child relationships during 1 year of preschool. Teachers (n = 223) reported their perceptions of closeness and conflict in their teacher-child relationships in the fall and spring. Children's (n = 895) positive…