Date: 07-01-2019

NEWS - ICDI Assessed Child Wellbeing in 5 European Countries

Tags: ECEC

Study reflects social and emotional wellbeing of young children in ECEC settings.

ICDI assessed the social and emotional well-being of children using the Universal Psychosocial Indicator for Five-Year-Old Boys and Girls (UPSI-5). The team was also interested in whether there were significant differences in the ECEC experience and social and emotional well-being of young children in (the five) different countries; in girls compared to boys and in rural compared to urban areas.

 

Main contributors
Children’s long-term success at school is influenced as much by social, emotional and self-regulation skills as by academic skills and knowledge. Social and emotional development is a main contributor to successful school transitions and a significant preventative factor of disruptive behavior, and mental health problems.

 

Not paying attention to social and emotional development is harmful to children’s capacity to learn and to thrive. It is also expensive in terms of the socio-economic costs associated with bullying, violence and mental health problems. Research demonstrates that frequent opportunities to engage in all types of play, outdoors and indoors, are positively associated with young children’s social and emotional well-being.

 

Parental Encouragement
So too is the support and encouragement of parents and practitioners who are responsive to young children’s need for nurturance and care and their drive to explore, play and learn. In early childhood settings, practitioners are the most important partners in providing a rich learning environment that can positively influence children’s development of self-regulation and social skills.

 

However, research points to a lack of training and continuous professional development on this topic, and the need to design effective methods to provide ECEC practitioners with skills and competences to promote children’s social and emotional well-being. 

Please access the study details HERE.