Poster #106 - Is boarding preschool experience associated with rural Chinese preschoolers’ social adjustment?

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

Background
In Western China, some rural children aged as young as 3 years attend boarding preschools, a type of residential childcare (Sun & Li, 2013). They stay at school for four to five consecutive days and nights per week. Findings for the effect of residential childcare experience on children's social adjustment mainly showed negative effects in early childhood (e.g., Beckett et al., 2002; Lee et al., 2010; Roy et al., 2000), while evidence for school-age children was largely mixed (e.g., Ak & Sayil, 2006; Ruiz-Casares & Phommavong, 2016; White, 2004). This study explored whether boarding preschool experience was associated with the social adjustment of rural Chinese preschoolers.

Research Questions
The study addressed three research questions: (1) was boarding preschool experience associated with teacher- and caregiver-reported social adjustment (i.e., social competence and problem behaviors) for rural preschoolers (for a conceptual model, see Figure 1)? (2) did caregiver-child relationships moderate these associations? (3) did the child’s sex and in-care history moderate these associations?

Methods
A total of 240 preschoolers (130 boarders and 110 non-boarders; age: M = 50.7 months, SD = 6.6 months) were recruited from ten rural preschools in Yunan, China. The study included two waves of assessments with a one-year gap in between. Parents' median annual income was RMB 5k–10k (or USD 768–1,536, compared to the Chinese rural national average of USD 2,063). Social competence, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems were assessed using the parent and teacher forms of the Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (SSIS-RS; Gresham & Elliott, 2008; Chinese population: Cheung et al., 2017; Wu et al., 2018) at both assessment waves. Caregiver-child relationships and demographic backgrounds were assessed using the short form of the Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS; Pianta, 1992) at the first wave.

Results
Boarding status was associated with increased teacher-reported social competence and decreased internalizing behavior problems but was unrelated to caregiver-reported social adjustment (see Table 1). Caregiver-child relationships predicted the social competence of boarders but not that of non-boarders. While a positive caregiver-child relationship might have helped boarders cope with the socially demanding boarding environment in rural boarding preschools, a negative relationship might have imposed additional risk. No moderation effects were noted for the child’s sex or in-care history.

Implications
Past studies on the effects of residential childcare often focused on extremely underprivileged children such as orphans. The population of boarding preschool children from intact families in rural China have not received adequate attention in the literature. Boarders' better social adjustment than their non-boarding peers in rural preschools, observed in this study, might be due to their higher levels of social connectedness and conformity. The findings also highlight the importance of supportive caregiver-child relationships for ensuring children's social adjustment in the challenging boarding environment. This study calls for a contextually sensitive approach to analyzing and intervening children's social adjustment.

Keywords: boarding preschool; social development; caregiver-child relationships; rural China

Authors

• Nan XIAO, Ohio State University
  Presenting Author

• Xiao Zhang, The University of Hong Kong