ERIC Number: EJ1434490
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Sep
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0007-0998
EISSN: EISSN-2044-8279
COVID-19 School Closures and Chinese Children's School Readiness: Results from the Natural Experimental Data
Tony Xing Tan; Joy Huanhuan Wang; Yi Zhou
British Journal of Educational Psychology, v94 n3 p976-994 2024
Aims: To determine the associations between COVID-19 school closures and school readiness skills for Chinese kindergarteners. Design: We utilized the natural experimental condition created by local COVID-19 outbreaks in 2022 (Study 1) to compare school readiness skills of children whose kindergartens were closed for 5 months (Group 1) with children whose kindergartens stayed open (Group 2). We further compared the school readiness skills of one pre-COVID-19 cohort (Cohort 2019) with one COVID-19 cohort (Cohort 2021) from a fifth kindergarten (Study 2). Samples: For Study 1, Group 1 included 445 children and Group 2 included 584 children aged 4-6 years. For Study 2, Cohort 2019 included 156 children and Cohort 2021 included 228 children aged 3-6 years. Measures: For both studies, survey data on four school readiness skills were collected from parents. Additionally, Study 1 collected parental locus of control data from parents. Results: Controlling for covariates, Study 1 revealed that Group 1 and Group 2 did not differ in terms of language and emergent literacy or approaches to learning. However, Group 1 scored lower than Group 2 on health and well-being and arts and imagination. Study 2 revealed that Cohort 2021 scored higher than Cohort 2019 on language and emergent literacy but lower on the other three skills. Conclusions: The associations of COVID-19 school closures with Chinese children's school readiness skills were not uniform, with a positive relation with language and emergent literacy and negative associations with health and well-being, approaches to learning, as well as arts and imagination.
Descriptors: COVID-19, Pandemics, School Readiness, School Closing, Kindergarten, Foreign Countries, Comparative Analysis, In Person Learning, Locus of Control, Parent Child Relationship, Language Skills, Emergent Literacy, Correlation, Health, Well Being, Cognitive Style, Art, Imagination
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A