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Research Findings: This study aims to explore the possible mediators between social support and parenting competence in Chinese mothers of preschoolers. Altogether 538 Chinese mothers were sampled and surveyed with the Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Psychological Capital Scale (PCS-24), and the Chinese versions of the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (C-PSOC). The results indicated that: (1) Chinese mothers' social support, psychological capital, and parenting competence were medium-level, and there were significant differences across different demographical profiles; (2) social support was positively correlated with maternal psychological capital (MPC) (r = 0.454, p < 0.001) and parenting competence (r = 0.288, p < 0.001); while MPC was positively correlated with parenting competence (r = 0.519, p < 0.001); (3) further regression analysis showed that social support significantly predicted MPC ([beta] = 0.456, p < 0.001) and parenting competence ([beta] = 0.280, p < 0.001), while MPC significantly predicted parenting competence ([beta] = 0.543, p < 0.001); (4) MPC significantly mediated the relationship between social support and parenting competence (95% CI =[0.2355,0.3784], F = 112.530, p < 0.001). The educational implications of these findings are also discussed. Policy and Implications: The findings indicated that sufficient support for building up maternal psychological capital should be provided to better implement social support for Chinese mothers and enhance their parenting competence.

This study explored the family language policy, parental beliefs, and bilingual parenting in Beijing, a typical monolingual society. Stratified random sampling was conducted to recruit 192 parents of Chinese preschoolers (ages 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years). They were surveyed with the "Home Language Environment and Practices" (HLEP) developed for this study. The statistical results indicated that: (1) the majority of Beijing families (90.1%) did not have bilingual home environment or related family language policy, only 8.9% did so; (2) three latent classes of bilingual parenting emerged: 'No Explicit Policy' (lower parental education level, no extra-curriculum activities, no bilingual environment, no Chinese-English bilingual, and few books at home; 64.6%); 'Monolingual Parenting' (relatively higher parental education level, more extra-curriculum activities, the highest number of Chinese and English books at home, the longest time for Chinese storytelling, and an emphasis on Chinese literacy and language learning; 26.6%); and 'Bilingual Parenting' (the highest parental education level, Chinese-English bilingual parents, bilingual home environment, and relatively more Chinese and English books at home); and (3) parental education level, bilingual father, bilingual mother, and number of English books at home predicted the profile of bilingual parenting, whereas parental beliefs about early bilingualism did not.

This study explored the patterns and predictors of code-switching (CS) in Singapore preschoolers by analyzing the data elicited from an existing early childhood corpus. Altogether 943 cases of CS produced by 111 children aged 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6, respectively, were analyzed. The results indicated that: (1) 'insertion', 'intersentential', and 'backflagging' were identified as the most common types of CS, whereas'alternation' was rarely found; (2) there was a significant age-related increase in the production repertoire, the occurrence rate, the number of children producing CS, the frequency, and the type of CS, and age was confirmed the significant predictor; (3) children from the families with at least one bilingual parent produced the most CS, whereas those from the families without any bilingual parents produced the least; (4) parental bilingualism attitude, storytelling, and singing activities negatively predicted the CS frequency and type, whereas parental language input patterns positively predicted the frequency; and (5) children from the families with parents believing that bilingual education should start from kindergarten years (Ages 3-6) had the highest frequency of CS. These findings have added empirical evidence about CS in a multilingual Asian society and highlighted the impact of parent bilingual input patterns on CS in early childhood.

This study elicited and analyzed all the Chinese and English interrogatives from the Singapore Early Child Mandarin Corpus (132 children aged 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, and 5;6) to examine the effects and predictors of early bilingual development in Singapore preschoolers. The results indicated that: (1) there was significant age (but not gender) effect in the production of Chinese and English interrogatives; (2) relatively more types of English interrogatives were produced and more preschoolers produced English interrogatives; (3) Parent Language Input Pattern significantly predicted the increase of Chinese interrogatives, whereas Parent Language Input Pattern and Language Spoken by Child jointly but negatively predicted English interrogatives; (4) the pattern that both parents only speak Chinese was associated with the highest production of Chinese interrogatives and the lowest production of English ones, whereas the pattern that both parents only speak English had the highest production of English interrogatives; and (5) the 'one-parent-one-language' pattern was found to have a balanced but reduced production of Chinese and English interrogatives, indicating a subtractive bilingualism in Singapore preschoolers.

Research Findings: Since 2011, China has started to loosen its tight on the One-child Policy (OCP), which has impacted parent's child-rearing beliefs and the provision of home learning environment that constitutes family environment. Utilizing parent-reported data on 4,364 zero- to eight-year-olds from the China Family Panel Study (CFPS, wave 2014) nationwide survey, we examined the relations among family structure, family environment, and child social competence. Analysis indicated that there were significant differences between only- and non-only-child families in terms of their age, urbanicity, family income, and family environment. The three-step latent profile approach revealed two family environment profiles: "Modern Family Environment" (12.4%) and "Traditional Family Environment" (86.6%), and that child singleton status was a significant predictor of profile membership. Bootstrap mediation analysis revealed that family environment profile fully mediated the relation between family structure and child social competence. Practice or Policy: The results highlighted the importance of providing a stimulating and supportive family environment, especially in families with multiple children. It also informed policymakers and practitioners of possible pathways to support young children's development by enhancing the quality of the family environment.

This study investigated the development of temporal adverbs in early childhood Mandarin. All cases of temporal adverbs indicating the past, present, and future were extracted from the Early Child Mandarin Corpus (168 children in four age groups: 2;6, 3;6, 4;6, 5;6). Data analyses indicated: (1) Mandarin-speaking children produced a repertoire of 21 types of temporal adverbs, and the children in the first age group (M = 2;6) were capable of using temporal adverbs to denote past, present, and future events; (2) within each age group, the children produced significantly more future temporal adverbs than the other two subtypes; and (3) there was a significant age effect that, with increased age, more children were able to produce all subtypes of temporal adverbs. Overall, findings of this corpus-based investigation shed light upon Chinese children's early-attained ability to express the three fundamental notions of time by resorting to the appropriate linguistic devices.

Social support is an essential source of support for preschool children's fathers to alleviate parenting anxiety, deal with parenting pressure, improve parenting methods, and enhance parenting sense of competence. Psychological capital serves as a critical psychological resource for preschoolers' fathers, helping them cope with parenting stress and enhancing parenting efficacy. To explore the mediating mechanism of psychological capital between social support and the parenting sense of competence of preschoolers' fathers, this study employs stratified sampling to survey 678 fathers from three cities of Henan province in China. The survey instruments mainly consist of the Social Support Rating Scale, Psychological Capital Questionnaire, and Parenting Sense of Competence Scale. Research findings show that social support, psychological capital, and fathers' parenting sense of competence are at the middle level. Significant positive correlations exist among social support, psychological capital, and parenting sense of competence. Social support can positively predict fathers' parenting sense of competence, while psychological capital partially mediates between social support and parenting sense of competence. Therefore, it is possible to increase social support for preschool children's fathers and improve their psychological capital to relieve their parenting pressure, enhance their parenting participation, and strengthen their parenting sense of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: The bilingual advantage in executive function (EF) has recently been explored with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology, but the results are still controversial because of the limited statistical analysis. This study aims to fill the gap by replicating the existing studies and advancing the statistical analysis. Design/methodology/approach: Altogether, 35 preschoolers (aged between 4.1 and 6.3 years, Mage = 5.0 years, SD = 0.59) completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Fourth Edition (PPVT-4) and the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task. Their behavioral performance and the associated brain activities during the three sessions of the DCCS task were measured using fNIRS. In addition, they were classified into either Bilingual or Monolingual groups based on the PPVT scores. Data and analysis: t -tests and quadratic regression analyses were conducted to examine whether children's performance in the DCCS was related to their bilingualism and whether the changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) in the prefrontal regions were related to their bilingualism and performance in the DCCS. Findings/conclusions: The behavioral data analysis indicated no significant differences between the monolinguals and bilinguals. However, the fNIRS evidence indicated that (1) the monolinguals had to recruit 15 channels to complete the cognitive shifting of DCCS tasks, whereas the bilinguals only employed 11; (2) the bilinguals had significantly more brain activation with fewer channels in BA 44 than the monolinguals, demonstrating more effective executive function. Originality: This study has advanced the statistical analysis of the HbO changes for the cognitive shifting in the DCCS by confirming the nonlinear U-shape by quadratic regression a better fit than the linear V-shape by GLM. Significance/implications: This finding implies that early bilingual experience has equipped young children with more effective executive function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executive function (EF) includes a set of higher-order abilities that control one's actions and thoughts consciously and has a protracted developmental trajectory that parallels the maturation of the frontal lobes, which develop speedily over the preschool period. To fully understand the development of EF in preschoolers, this study examined the relationship among the three domains of executive function (cognitive shifting, inhibitory control, and working memory) to test the applicability of the unity–diversity model in preschoolers using both behavioral and fNIRS approaches. Altogether, 58 Chinese preschoolers (34 boys, 24 girls, Mage = 5.86 years, SD = 0.53, age range = 4.83–6.67 years) were administered the Dimensional Card Change Sort (DCCS), go/no-go, and missing scan task. Their brain activations in the prefrontal cortex during the tasks were examined using fNIRS. First, the behavioral results indicated that the missing scan task scores (working memory) correlated with the DCCS (cognitive shifting) and go/no-go tasks (inhibitory control). However, the latter two did not correlate with each other. Second, the fNIRS results demonstrated that the prefrontal activations during the working memory task correlated with those in the same regions during the cognitive shifting and inhibitory control tasks. However, the latter two still did not correlate. The behavioral and neuroimaging evidence jointly indicates that the unity–diversity model of EF does apply to Chinese preschoolers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the patterns and predictors of aspect marker acquisition of Chinese preschoolers speaking Mandarin Chinese as their first language (L1). Based on a corpus drawn from 157 preschoolers from Beijing, China, this study set out to explore (1) the developmental pattern of aspect marker acquisition; (2) the interactional pattern between grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspects; (3) the production of temporal adverbs with aspect markers; and (4) the predictors of aspect marker acquisition. The main research findings included the following: (1) the Jonckheere–Terpstra test revealed an age-related increase in children's production of aspect markers, and in particular, there was a significant increase in grammatical aspect markers and lexical aspect subclasses from age 4;6 (Year; Month) onwards; (2) the Friedman's ANOVAs indicated that -LE was frequently used in combination with most of the lexical aspect subclasses, among them the achievement was the most frequently co-occurring subclass, while the activities came second; (3) a series of Chi-square tests showed that using temporal adverbs in combination with aspect markers became increasingly common among older children; (4) the hierarchical regression analysis identified children's preschooling experience as a significant predictor of their early aspectual development, after controlling for the other variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the role of theme-based blocks play in enhancing Chinese children's language capacity with a quasi-experiment. Altogether 61 young children were assigned to the experiment group (M age = 5.83, SD = 0.25, 56.25% girls) and the control group (M age = 5.87, SD = 0.28, 51.72% girls). The experiment group was engaged in a 12-week theme-based block play intervention programs, whereas the control group received no interventions but free block play during the parallel time sessions. All the children were tested with the Language Assessment for Preschool Children (LAPC) before and after the intervention. The ANCOVA results indicated that the experimental group significantly improved in LAPC test, whereas the control group showed no significant change. The educational implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The present study aims to examine: (1) the relationship between young children's bilingualism and their performance in the Dimensional Card Change Sort (DCCS) task; and (2) whether prefrontal activation was associated with children's bilingualism and executive function. Methodology: Children performed three sessions of the DCCS and their brain activity during the task was measured using functional nearinfrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Data and analysis: A sample of bilingual children (N = 49) was recruited from a preschool with an English immersion program. We examined whether children's performance in the DCCS was related to their bilingualism and whether the changes in oxygenated hemoglobin in the prefrontal regions were related to their bilingualism and performance in the DCCS. Findings/conclusions: Results showed that children's English ability was significantly correlated with their behavioral performance in DCCS, and predicted children's group membership (pass or perseverate). Furthermore, children in the pass group significantly activated the prefrontal cortex than those in the perseverate group, and activation in the prefrontal region was significantly correlated with children's English ability. Originality: The current study first examined the effect of children's bilingualism on their executive function and prefrontal activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• There was a significant age difference in Chinese motion event (ME) production. • Age 4.5 could be regarded as a critical period for developing caused motion events (CME). • Father's daily time with children predicted ME production. • Parents' frequency of watching television with children also predicted ME production. This study explored Chinese preschoolers' expression of motion events in a toy-play context, focusing on developmental patterns and family predictors. A total of 1683 utterances produced by 192 preschoolers (aged 2, aged 3, aged 4, aged 5) about motion events were identified from the Corpus (oLi & Tse, Li & Tse, 2011). The descriptive and regression results revealed that: (1) there were significant age differences in the motion events production, utterance density, and lexical diversity (path verbs types), within the same half-hour play session; (2) the age 4.5 was identified as a critical period for developing caused motion events; (3) fathers' daily time with children and the frequency of parents' television watching with children were positive predictors for early motion events production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the impact of heavy use of tablets on preschoolers' executive function during the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) task using the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Altogether, 38 Chinese preschoolers (Mage = 5.0 years, SD = 0.69 years, 17 girls) completed the tasks before the COVID-19 lockdown. Eight children never used tablets, while 16 children were diagnosed as the 'heavy-user'. The results indicated that: (1) the 'non-user' outperformed the 'heavy-user' with a significantly higher correct rate in the DCCS task; (2) the two groups differed significantly in the activation of the prefrontal cortex (BA 9): the 'non-user' pattern is normal and healthy, whereas the 'heavy-user' pattern is not normal and needs further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]