Young Children's Social-emotional Development Research Articles

Effects of dog ownership on children's social-emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE cohort study.

Dog ownership is common in families with children and could play a role in children's social-emotional development. This study used longitudinal data on dog ownership and changing dog ownership to investigate their effects on young children's social-emotional development. Parents reported family dog ownership when their child was aged 2-5 years and at 5-7 years. Children (n = 591) were assigned to a dog ownership group by combining their current and prior dog ownership status. The parent-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) measured children's social-emotional development at 5-7 years. Analyses included linear, Poisson, and logistic regression and adjusted for socio-demographic factors. Girls who acquired a dog had significantly higher peer problems scores than non-dog owner girls (exp(β) = 1.8; 95% CI 1.3, 2.6). Boys who acquired a dog had significantly lower peer problems scores than continuing non-dog owner boys (exp(β) = 0.5; 95% CI 0.3, 0.8). There were no other significant effects observed between dog ownership group and SDQ scores or the odds of having abnormal scores. Overall, changing or continuing dog ownership status had minimal impact on young children's social-emotional development. Future longitudinal research should examine the effects of dog ownership on child development by family characteristics and attachment to the dog. Dog acquisition was associated with higher peer problems for girls and lower peer problems for boys, but not the odds of having abnormal peer problems scores. Dog acquisition, dog loss, and continuing dog ownership status were not associated with other measure of social-emotional development. This study used longitudinal data to examine effects of dog ownership on child development. Overall, changing or continuing dog ownership status had minimal impact on young children's social-emotional development. Since dog ownership is selected into, longitudinal research is needed to confirm if changes in children's social-emotional development occur following changes in dog ownership.

유아 사회정서지원 과정에서 유아교사가 경험하는 보람과 어려움

Objectives This study attempted to draw implications by exploring the rewards and difficulties experienced by early childhood teachers in supporting young children’s social emotional development. Methods Data were collected by conducting two in-depth interviews with 17 teachers of 3 to 5-year-olds at early childhood education institutions located in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon and analyzed using qualitative research methods. The research findings derived through data analysis underwent internal validation by the study participants, discussions among researchers, and consultations with two early childhood education experts. Results The results show that, in supporting young children social emotional development, the teachers feel rewarding when the children control their emotions and build social relationships by themselves, appropriately express emotions and use social skills for situations, and also when there are progress and practices at home. In addition, the teachers experience difficulties in supporting children’s social emotional development due to developmental differences among the children, challenges in using interaction methods to support social emotional development, lack of time and manpower, and parents’ insufficient understanding and cooperation with supporting methods. Conclusions Through this study, it is found that the early childhood teachers experience rewards and difficulties in supporting young children’s social emotional development in various aspects. It is necessary to develop and provide professional developmental training and programs that can improve social emotional teaching capabilities of early childhood teachers. More practical support needs to be provided to early childhood teachers by seeking case-by-case support plans related to young children's social emotional development. Also, it is necessary to develop criteria and indicators to understand young children’s social and emotional developmental levels, so that appropriate supports for each child’s developmental level can be provided. In addition, it is essential to prepare plans for both of families and institutions to support young children's social emotional development together through family-linked programs.

A longitudinal study on moral emotions and psychosocial functioning among preschool children with and without hearing loss.

Moral emotions such as shame, guilt and pride are crucial to young children's social-emotional development. Due to the restrictions caused by hearing loss in accessing the social world, deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children may encounter extra difficulties in their development of moral emotions. However, little research so far has investigated the development trajectory of moral emotions during preschool years in DHH children. The present study used a longitudinal design to explore the development trajectories of shame, guilt, and pride, in a sample of 259 Chinese DHH and typically hearing (TH) preschoolers aged 2 to 6 years old. The results indicated that according to parent reports, DHH children manifested lower levels of guilt and pride compared to their TH peers, yet the manifested levels of shame, guilt, and pride increased throughout the preschool time at a similar pace in all children. Moreover, whilst guilt and pride contributed to increasing levels of psychosocial functioning over the preschool years, shame contributed to lower social competence and more externalizing behaviors in DHH and TH preschoolers. The outcomes imply that early interventions and adjustment to hearing loss could be useful to safeguard the social development of children with severe hearing loss, and cultural variances shall be taken into consideration when studying moral emotions in a Chinese cultural background.

Social-Emotional Profiles of Preschool Children: An Investigation of Demographic Disparities and Intersectionality.

This study aims to enhance our understanding of the diverse nature of social-emotional development and explore the demographic disparities and intersectionality of social determinants among children, with an emphasis on underserved populations of children in low-resource environments. Young children living in low-income families are exposed to a wide array of social and systemic risks that increase the propensity for poor learning and social-emotional development. Using data from the Head Start Family and Childhood Experiences Survey (FACES, this study focuses on the social-emotional development of a nationally representative sample of young children enrolled in the Head Start program (n = 1921, 50.18% male). Employing a person-centered approach, we assessed teacher-rated social-emotional competence, including approach to learning, social cooperation, aggression, hyperactivity, and anxiety/depression/withdrawal, to classify young children's social-emotional development. This study identified four distinct social-emotional profiles-Adaptive, Average, Moderate Risk, and High Risk-through latent profile analysis. Furthermore, multinomial regression analysis revealed demographic disparities within each social-emotional profile, and significant intersectionality was found between race/ethnicity, age, and disability status in the social-emotional profiles. This research provides valuable insights for better supporting each child's unique needs.

The effect of picture book reading on young children's use of an emotion regulation strategy.

Picture book reading is an enjoyable everyday activity for many young children with well-known benefits for language development. The present study investigated whether picture book reading can support young children's social-emotional development by providing a learning opportunity for the usage of emotion regulation strategies. Three-year-old children participated in two waiting situations designed to elicit negative affect. Between these waiting situations they read a picture book. In two experimental conditions, the book depicted how a protagonist (same-aged peer or young adult, respectively) waited for a desired object and distracted herself with toys while waiting. Children in an additional control condition read a picture book that was unrelated to waiting. Use of distraction did not differ between conditions. Parents often read picture book interactively with their children. Therefore, in an additional condition (Exp. 2), the experimenter read the picture book featuring the same-aged peer protagonist in an interactive way intended to facilitate transfer. Apart from the reading style, the design was identical to experiment 1. Experiment 2 intended to test whether changes in reading style lead to differences in three-year old children's social-emotional learning from picture books. When controlling for the children's picture book experience, children in the experimental conditions exhibited an increase in distraction in contrast to children in the control condition. In sum, results suggest that picture book reading could be an ecologically valid and versatile method for supporting 3-year-old children in their use of an age-appropriate adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as distraction.

The effect of spanking on early social-emotional skills.

Whether spanking is detrimental for social-emotional (SE) development remains controversial, mostly due to disputes around the internal and external validity of existing evidence. This study examined the effect of spanking on the SE development of Bhutanese children, using a national, longitudinal sample (N=1377; Mage =50.5months old; 50% girls). Following best-practice recommendations for mitigating issues of selection bias in observational developmental research, the study employed conservative methods (i.e., child fixed-effects and lagged-dependent variables) and robustness checks to assess the internal validity of estimates. Across approaches, spanking predicted reductions in SE skills of .09-.17SD, even after controlling for all time-invariant confounders and baseline levels of SE skills. These findings strengthen the argument that spanking might be harmful to young children's SE development.

The role of consultative alliance in infant and early childhood mental health consultation: Child, teacher, and classroom outcomes.

Young children's social-emotional development is powerfully shaped by their early environments, which for many includes early childhood education (ECE). Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (IECMHC) pairs teachers and infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) consultants to promote teachers' capacity to foster positive social-emotional development in ECE. Although the outcomes of IECMHC have been well studied, little research has investigated how this model leads to changes for teachers and children. According to theory, the quality of the relationship between teachers and IECMH consultants, termed consultative alliance (CA), is a key mechanism of change. This study analyzed the role of CA on 6-month outcomes of IECMHC in a sample of 316 children, 289 teachers, and 62 IECMH consultants. Results from multilevel models suggested that stronger CA predicted greater improvements in teacher-child closeness and teacher-rated child attachment behaviors. In addition, a strong CA was related to greater improvement in classroom climate, teachers' self-efficacy, and teachers' perceptions of their jobs. This study upholds the centrality of relationship-building and parallel process in mental health consultation, and by advancing understanding of the mechanisms of change for IECMHC may provide salient implications for policy and practice.

The relationship between dog ownership, dog play, family dog walking, and pre-schooler social-emotional development: findings from the PLAYCE observational study.

Regular physical activity provides children with health and developmental benefits. This study investigated if active play and walking with the family dog was associated with better social-emotional development in young children. We surveyed 1646 parents to ascertain if families with pre-schoolers owned a dog, and the frequency per week their child went on family dog walks or actively played with their dog. The parent-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to measure children's social-emotional development. Children from dog-owning households had reduced likelihood of conduct problems (odds ratio (OR) = 0.70; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.54, 0.90), peer problems (OR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.79), and total difficulties (OR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.59, 0.99) and increased likelihood of prosocial behavior (OR = 1.34; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.68) compared with children without a dog. Within dog-owning households, family dog walking at least once/week (OR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.02, 2.08) and active play with the family dog three or more times/week (OR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.16, 2.59) increased the likelihood of prosocial behaviors. Family dog walking at least once/week also reduced the likelihood of total difficulties (OR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.42, 0.96). Our findings highlight the possible physical activity and social-emotional developmental benefits of family dog ownership for pre-schoolers, and that these benefits may present in early childhood. Young children from dog-owning families had lower peer problems and conduct problems, and higher prosocial behaviors than children from non-dog-owning families. Children of dog-owning families who walked or played with their dog more often also had better prosocial behaviors. Positive social-emotional development was associated with dog ownership, family dog walking, and dog play in young children. Highlights that the social-emotional benefits of owning a dog may begin early in childhood. Due to the high level of pet ownership in households with children, these findings suggest having a dog and interacting with it through play and walking may be important mechanisms for facilitating young children's social-emotional development.

Parents' adverse childhood experiences and parent-child emotional availability in an American Indian community: Relations with young children's social-emotional development.

This study examined relations among parent adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), parent mental distress, child social-emotional functioning, and parent emotional availability (EA) among parents and children served by an Early Head Start program in an American Indian community. The majority of parents and children in the study were American Indian/Alaska Native. American Indian/Alaska Native communities experience relatively high rates of trauma, socioeconomic disparities, and mental health challenges. In this context, young children may be especially vulnerable to early life stress. Further, a strong body of literature demonstrates the long-term effects of ACEs on individuals' mental health, as well as their child's social-emotional functioning. In this study we examined a model to test the relation of parent ACEs to children's social-emotional functioning, with an indirect effect via a latent "mental distress" variable consisting of parent depression, anxiety, and parenting-related distress. Results supported this model, suggesting that parent ACEs related to children's social-emotional problems by way of parent mental distress. However, when a categorical measure of parent EA was added as a moderator, the model only remained significant in the low EA parent group. These results provided evidence for a "buffering" effect of high parent EA on the relation between parent ACEs, parent mental distress, and children's social-emotional problems.

Fathers' indirect contribution to children's social-emotional development via mothers' psychological parenting environments

We sought to determine whether fathers' play participation exerted an indirect effect on young children's social-emotional development by supporting mothers' psychological parenting environments of depression, parenting stress, and parenting efficacy. We also identified differences by family income. Mothers responded to all measures. We sampled 72 low-income and 201 higher income Korean mothers with 3- to 5-year-old children. The results showed that fathers in higher income families indirectly contributed to young children's social-emotional development through their effect on mothers' depression and parenting stress, and fathers in low-income families indirectly contributed through their effect on mothers' depression, parenting stress, and parenting efficacy. Practical implications for improving young children's social-emotional development in each family income group are discussed.

Coparenting in Teen Mothers and Their Children's Fathers: Evidence From the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort

Objective(1) To describe coparenting among adolescent mothers and the biological fathers of their children. (2) To examine the effects of coparenting on young children's social–emotional development and whether these effects vary by father's residence status, parental education, and child characteristics. MethodsSecondary analysis was conducted with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, which is a nationally representative sample of U.S. children born in 2001. The subsample used in this study includes 400 children whose biological mothers, aged 15–19, participated when their children were 2 years and 4 years old and whose biological fathers (residential and nonresidential) participated at 4 years. Cooperative coparenting and coparenting conflict were measured at child age 2 years. Children's social skills and problem behavior were measured at child age 4 years. ResultsMother- and father-reported coparenting conflict were associated with child behavior problems, more strongly among boys (b = 1.31, P < .01) than girls (b = −0.13, P > .05). Mother-reported coparenting conflict also predicted lower child social skills (b = −1.28, P < .05); the association of father-reported coparenting conflict with social skills was moderated by child race and father education. ConclusionsCoparenting conflict between adolescent parents influences child adjustment. Practitioners working with teen mothers should encourage father participation at medical visits and other clinical contacts and should address the relationship between the parents, whether or not they are living together, as part of routine care.

Preparing Early Childhood Educators to Address Young Children's Social-Emotional Development and Challenging Behavior

This article presents results from a survey of faculty members from 2- and 4-year higher education programs in nine states that prepare teachers to work with preschool children. The purpose of the study was to determine how professors address content related to social-emotional development and challenging behaviors, how well prepared they believe graduates are to address these issues, and resources that might be useful to better prepare graduates to work with children with challenging behavior. Of the 225 surveys that were mailed, 70% were returned. Faculty members reported their graduates were prepared on topics such as working with families, preventive practices, and supporting social emotional development but less prepared to work with children with challenging behaviors. Survey findings are discussed related to differences between 2- and 4-year programs and between programs with and without a special education component. Implications for personnel preparation and future research are discussed.

Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning: A Conceptual Model for Intervention

Over the last several years, there has been an increased focus on school readiness and supporting children during the preschool years to learn the skills they need to be successful in elementary school and beyond (Bowman, Donovan, Burns, et al., 2000; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). The capacity to develop positive social relationships, to concentrate and persist on challenging tasks, to effectively communicate emotions, and to problem solve are just a few of the competencies young children need to be successful as they transition to school. In this article, we describe the Teaching Pyramid (Fox, Dunlap, Hemmeter, Joseph, & Strain, 2003), a model for promoting young children's social—emotional development and addressing children's challenging behavior and its link to critical outcomes for children, families, and early childhood programs. The Pyramid includes four components: building positive relationships with children, families, and colleagues; designing supportive and engaging environments; teaching social and emotional skills; and developing individualized interventions for children with the most challenging behavior. Given the unique characteristics of early childhood settings, implementation issues and implications of the model are a primary focus of the discussion.

Assessment of young children's social-emotional development and psychopathology: recent advances and recommendations for practice.

In this paper we have tried to document some of the recent advances in the conceptualization and assessment of early-emerging social-emotional and behavior problems, competencies, and psychopathology. Considerable evidence documents that young children evidence significant psychopathology (cf., Del Carmen & Carter, in press; Emde, 1999; Zeanah, 2001; Zeanah et al., 1997). Given the range of new assessment measures that have become available over the past 10 years, the field of young child mental health is poised for dramatic gains in knowledge. It is critical to conduct large-scale, longitudinal, epidemiological studies to inform our understanding of the course of psychopathological conditions within the context of a normative developmental framework. Multi-method, multi-informant assessment approaches are more essential in early childhood due to young children's inability to provide self-reports and the embedded nature of children's development in their caregiving contexts. Screening large representative samples affords the opportunity to ascertain unbiased clinically informative sub-samples for methodologically intensive sub-studies. These sub-studies can address the child's cognitive and linguistic developmental capacities as well as utilize observational methods to examine the relational context. This approach provides an opportunity to merge dimensional and diagnostic assessments and will yield critical information for disentangling continuities and discontinuities in normative and atypical development. The assessment methodology currently exists to routinely screen very young children for social-emotional and behavior problems as well as delays in the acquisition of competencies in pediatric settings as well as in early intervention programs. Yet, despite the likely long-term benefits and cost-saving potential of early identification and intervention services, short-term cost and knowledge barriers currently limit widespread implementation. Discussions with pediatricians suggest that one of the greatest barriers to screening is the limited availability of mental health referral sources. Indeed, very few children who are rated by parents as having elevated social-emotional and behavior problems are receiving any behavioral health services (Horwitz et al., in press). Unmet mental health needs exist among non-referred children in the community as well as among children receiving early intervention services for developmental concerns. Documenting the mental health needs of young children may promote training of professionals who have the competence to treat young children and their families. Moreover, the availability of social-emotional and behavior problem assessment tools should increase studies that focus on the clinical efficacy and effectiveness of prevention and early intervention programs designed to promote positive mental health. Finally, although significant progress is occurring in the arena of young child diagnosis, a strong case can be made for intervening when young children are exhibiting elevations in problem behaviors or delays in the acquisition of competence. This is particularly true when children are also experiencing exposure to multiple contextual risk factors. It is therefore important to advocate for changes to systems that require child diagnosis as a gateway to intervention. As we learn more about the precursors or prodromal manifestations of clinical psychopathology we will be able to examine the efficacy of earlier targeted preventive intervention approaches.

Changes in the Social Skills and Behavior Problems of Homeless and Housed Children During the Preschool Year

This study examined the social competence and mental health of homeless and permanently housed preschool children enrolled in the Head Start program. Mothers and Head Start teachers rated the social skills and behavior problems of 38 homeless and 46 housed preschoolers twice during the school year. The researchers compared the behavior of the homeless and housed preschoolers soon after they entered Head Start, as well as changes in children's behavior six months after their initial assessment. Both parents and teachers reported that homeless children exhibited more behavioral problems than housed children at the beginning of the study, but perceived no significant differences in the two groups' social skills. Mothers reported significant declines in homeless children's compliance relative to their housed peers at the conclusion of the study, while teachers noted significant declines in homeless children's compliance and expressive skills. Both mothers and teachers reported that homeless children exhibited significantly greater increases in behavior problems than their housed peers over the study period. Findings indicate the need for Head Start and other early childhood programs to develop interventions designed to moderate the negative effect of homelessness on young children's social-emotional development.