Young Chinese Children's Academic Skill Development: Identifying Child-, Family-, and School-Level Factors

Abstract

This chapter addresses how child‐, family‐, and school‐level characteristics are associated with Chinese children's academic skill development during their preschool years. Academic skills are defined in terms of young children's emergent competencies in academic domains including literacy, mathematics, and science. First, we review the relations of young Chinese children's cognition (language, visuospatial, and executive functioning), behavior (social behavior and behavioral regulation), and affect (interest and attitude) to their performance in these academic domains. Second, we review the roles of familial variables, including family socioeconomic status and broad and specific aspects of parenting practices and parental involvement. Third, we review school‐ and classroom‐level factors, with a special emphasis on preschool and classroom quality that is particularly relevant to young Chinese children's academic skills. We discuss the educational implications of these study findings and identify methodological limitations that may threaten their internal and external validity. Our aim is to bring attention to the growing body of research on young Chinese children's academic skill development and to highlight several areas that need further research.

Association Between Preschoolers’ Specific Fine (But Not Gross) Motor Skills and Later Academic Competencies: Educational Implications

“…However, and with the previously mentioned caution, we have found our results to be coherent with the literature in terms of the different associations between specific motor skills and academic competencies when this variable (academic competence) was considered globally or specifically, for each main academic domain (literacy and mathematics) (Zhang et al, 2019). Our results are also coherent with other studies in that specific fine motor skills have been found to be more closely linked to academic competencies than specific gross motor skills (Grissmer et al, 2010;Pagani et al, 2010;Pagani and Messier, 2012;Gandhi et al, 2013;Cameron et al, 2016;Pitchford et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2019). In fact, in our study, specific gross motor skills were not found to be associated with academic competencies, also in accordance with the results of other authors (Grissmer et al, 2010;Pagani et al, 2010;Pagani and Messier, 2012;Gandhi et al, 2013;Pitchford et al, 2016;Macdonald et al, 2020).…”

Overweight and Obesity Impair Academic Performance in Adolescence: A National Cohort Study of 10,279 Adolescents in China

“…Children spend most of their time in school, and the effects of ov/ob may manifest in various facets of their academic performance. In Chinese culture, education has long been and remains to be seen as a valued tool for social upward mobility, and academic performance is highly valued (9). Rapid social changes and implementation of the One-Child Policy have contributed to elevated academic ► Some cross-sectional studies and limited longitudinal research have indicated that overweight or obesity (ov/ob) negatively affects children's and adolescents' academic performance in Western countries, but there is limited research on the influence of ov/ob on poor academic performance in adolescents in developing countries, including China.…”

The unique role of father–child numeracy activities in number competence of very young Chinese children

“…Children's early mathematics knowledge is a reliable predictor of their later mathematics achievement in primary and secondary schools (Aunio & Niemivirta, ; Duncan et al, ; Jordan, Kaplan, Locuniak, & Ramineni, ; Jordan, Kaplan, Ramineni, & Locuniak, ; Zhang et al, ; Zhang et al, , in press). Recently, the influence of home learning environments on children's early mathematics knowledge has become a topic of great interest (Zhang, Hu, Ren, Huo, & Wang, ). Within parent–child interactions, there are a variety of events and activities, either intentional (explicit) or unintentional (implicit), that involve numeracy knowledge (Zhou et al, ).…”

“…In the literature, Chinese parents' high levels of involvement in their children's education have been noted to be one of the most important predictors of Chinese children's superiority in mathematics (see a review in Ng & Rao, ). However, previous studies on parental involvement in Chinese societies have focused mainly on broad aspects of involvement such as parents' engagement in parent–teacher conferences and helping their children with homework (Zhang et al, ). Very few studies have examined Chinese parents' involvement in specific content areas such as mathematics.…”

“…Parents' expectations for their children's academic achievement might be a crucial factor in determining individual differences in their engagement in home numeracy activities. Compared with other cultures, Chinese society has greater expectations with regard to children's academic achievement (Luo, Tamis‐LeMonda, & Song, ; Zhang et al, ), and Chinese parents often report greater involvement in their children's education (e.g., Luo et al, ). In cross‐cultural research, parents in China or with a Chinese background have been observed to offer more time to help with their children's homework and give more structured guidance in mathematics learning than Western parents (Imbo & LeFevre, ).…”