Contextual variation in young children's acquisition of social-emotional skills

PLoS One. 2019 Nov 18;14(11):e0223056. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223056. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

This study examined variation in the timing of 5,447 infants' and toddlers' reported acquisition of 12 basic social-emotional skills across and within 11 developing and developed country sites. Although children differed significantly across sites in when they attained social-emotional skills on average (e.g., M age Brazil = 20.50 months vs. M age India = 26.92 months), there was also substantial heterogeneity across skills. For example, children in Pakistan were reported to demonstrate sympathy on average seven months earlier than their peers in Ghana, whereas the opposite was true for sharing. Overall, country-level health and education were strongly associated (r > .60) with earlier site-level skill attainment. In addition to heterogeneity across sites, we also observed notable within-site variability in skill development (ICCs = .03 to .38). Future research is needed to identify sources of variability and how to promote skills that matter within a given context.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Age Factors
  • Child Development*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison
  • Developed Countries
  • Developing Countries
  • Emotions*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Male
  • Social Skills*

Grants and funding

DCM and GF received the funding for this work through grant Grant Number 0073-03 from Grand Challenges Canada (https://www.grandchallenges.ca/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.