Relationships between Parenting Skills and Early Childhood Development in Rural Households in Western China

Jingdong Zhong, Yang He, Yuting Chen and Renfu Luo
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Jingdong Zhong: School of Economics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yang He: China Center for Agricultural Policy, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Yuting Chen: China Center for Agricultural Policy, School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 5, 1-10

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates the relationships between caregivers’ parenting skills and early cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional development of children aged 6–24 months. The study is based on data from a survey conducted in 100 villages in a typical poor rural area in western China. A total of 1715 households were enrolled in the study. In the study, Parent and Family Adjustment Scales (PAFAS), Bayley Scales of Infant Development version III (BSID-III), and a socioeconomic questionnaire were used to measure caregiver’s parenting skills, child’s development outcomes, and socioeconomic characteristics in sample households, respectively. Multivariate regression was used to estimate the relationship between a caregiver’s parenting skills and the child’s development outcomes. The results show that, first, parenting skills are positively and significantly associated with children’s cognitive, language, motor, and social-emotional development, and the link between parenting skills and social-emotional development is the strongest; second, the correlation between parenting skills and development outcomes varies across socioeconomic characteristics and parenting skill dimensions. The results provide evidence for the relationship between parenting skills and early childhood development in rural households in western China. Our findings also suggest that interventions aimed at improving caregivers’ parenting skills during the early stages are necessary for human capital development in rural China.

Keywords: early childhood development; parenting skills; human capital; rural China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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