Background As a part of its welfare system, Norway provides universal access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) for all children between the ages of 1 and 5. To provide this access, Norway has undergone considerable structural changes in recent decades (Vassenden et al. 2011). These changes began with the 2003 ECEC settlement, which required municipalities to offer all children a place in ECEC. In 2009, access to a place in an ECEC programme became a legal right for all children. The overall purpose of these settlement initiatives and the establishment of universal access to ECEC was to ensure social equality and secure a good start for all children (Haug and Storø 2013). To meet heightened demand, new and larger ECEC settings were built, group sizes were expanded, the number of children under the age of three attending ECEC settings increased and a new type of organisation, flexible groups was formed (Gulbrandsen and Eliassen 2013). Most of the changes were related to quantity; however, in recent years, quality has appeared more systematically on policy-makers' agendas, especially for infants and toddlers (OECD 2015; Vassenden et al. 2011). The quality aspects of ECEC are related to children's experiences in ECEC institutions, such as their involvement in interactions and activities that are assumed to be beneficial for their learning and development (Sylva et al. 2006; Thomason and La Paro 2009). The concept of quality in ECEC is multifaceted, although the general consensus is that

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Abstract:The Lamer Social Competence in Preschool Scale (LSCIP) has been widely used in Norway to assess children's social competence; however, the six-factor structure has not been validated since the scale was developed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the structure of the LSCIP using confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses. The results show that the original model has a nearly adequate fit according to model fit criteria, but also suggest the need for revisions to achieve a better model. The study contributes to the further development of the LSCIP as a measurement tool that can be used to measure children's social competence in both research and practice.

This review concerns how quality in ECEC is thematized and examined in Norwegian research published in 2010–2021. The review contributes to developing relevant professional knowledge and insight into what quality in ECEC is, should be or can be. A systematic scoping review includes 97 empirical studies of quality in the Norwegian ECEC context. The results show an increase in studies addressing quality after the year 2017. Most studies use interviews and observations, i.e., qualitative data. Research based on quantitative studies mainly applies to questionnaires, whereas multi-method designs occur with the third greatest frequency. The majority of the studies are descriptive or explore relationships. A few studies concern method development, interventions or reviews of the literature. ECEC staff and ECEC teachers are the most common informants. Two-thirds of the studies included were published in English, and only one-third were published in Norwegian. Thematically, process quality emerges as the most studied dimension of quality, dominated by investigating the aspect of staff–child interactions. About one-third of the studies investigate structural quality, with most attention paid to the physical environment and the organization of the ECEC provisions. Less research is directed at result (outcome) quality and curriculum quality. This overview contributes to increased knowledge about how quality is understood and used in research, as an essential prerequisite for creating a safe and sound everyday life for children in ECEC.

Early social and emotional development is foundational for children’s health, education, well-being, and later adjustment in society. It is also a cornerstone of positive psychology—the exploration of human flourishing at an individual, community, and societal level. Habitual explanatory styles (e.g., mindsets and optimistic thinking) have an impact on human well-being and development and are often acquired during early childhood. These explanatory styles may be influenced by regular interactions with significant adults outside of the family setting. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between optimism, mindsets, and well-being of children in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) contexts. This scoping review systematically explores and maps out the literature on optimism, growth mindsets, and positive psychology with young children in ECEC. It identifies literature reporting qualitatively or quantitatively on theory or programs and interventions including optimism, growth mindset, and positive psychology in young children, reporting or implying a mechanism of change for the well-being of young children, and published between 1995 and 2021.