Session Information
99 ERC SES 04 L, Health and Wellbeing Education
Paper Session
Contribution
Defined as children’s ability to successfully obtain acceptable entries to group activities, collaborative negotiations and cooperative play for full and active participation in ECEC group activities as confident agents, social competence among children in ECEC is considered a crucial skill to construct and maintain mutual and durable friendships with peers and harmonious relationships with adults (Pakarinen et al., 2020). These relationships have been proved to be related to children’s wellbeing (Sandseter & Seland, 2018), an essential element for children’s holistic development in many ECEC curriculum frameworks (Council of European Union, 2019), including the Finnish Core Curriculum for ECEC (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2018), a Nordic welfare model with universalism, equality and equity for every child regardless of their different backgrounds (Kumpulainen, 2018). However, sparse research has been done on how young children’s social competence is related to their social-emotional wellbeing in ECEC in both directions.
Moreover, sizable research has been undertaken on the effects of ECEC arrangements on children’s development such as cognitive, languages and social emotional competence (Zachrisson & Lekhal, 2014). Nevertheless, little is known about how ECEC arrangements (weekly hours and providers) are associated with children’s social-emotional wellbeing (i.e., enjoyment and the fulfilment of their basic needs) in ECEC. In addition, the association of childcare arrangements and children’s social behaviours has been studied in different childcare systems (Averdijk et al., 2022; Huston et al., 2015), etc., with mixed results, but its moderation effects on the two-way associations between children’s social competence and social-emotional wellbeing have been scarcely researched.
Thus, this study aims to investigate the two-way associations between children’s social competence and their social-emotional wellbeing (i.e., the fulfilment of their basic needs and their enjoyment) in ECEC. Specifically, it examines whether children with higher social competence have their basic needs fulfilled and enjoy their ECEC experiences more or whether children with higher level of enjoyment and basic need fulfilment demonstrate higher prosocial and less antisocial behaviors. The current research also investigates if children’s weekly hours in ECEC and the types of ECEC providers they attend (private or public) moderate the two-way associations between children’s social competence and their social-emotional wellbeing in ECEC.
Method
The study is based on the survey data collected by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (FIHW) from the guardians of four-year-old children on the health and wellbeing of children and their families in 2018. In this study, structural equation modelling analyses with Mplus software (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2023) were executed to examine the associations between children’s social-emotional wellbeing in ECEC and their social competence in both directions. Moreover, the moderation effects of ECEC arrangements on these associations were also investigated. Children’s social competence was assessed with MASCS scale (Junttila et al., 2006) of 13 items with the Linkert of 1-never to 4-very often. The scale includes four subscales, empathy and cooperation indicated prosocial behaviors, disruptiveness and impulsivity categorized as antisocial behaviors. Children’s social-emotional wellbeing consists of their enjoyment and basic need fulfilment in ECEC. Children’s enjoyment in ECEC was evaluated with 5 out of 12 items of Leiden Child Wellbeing Inventory (van Trijp et al., 2021) with Linkert scales from 1-never to 6-always. These items evalaute the levels of being comfortable with ECEC attendance, other children, in the groups, on arrival and the settings. Children’s basic need fulfillment was assessed from 1 = fully agree to 5 = fully disagree with 5 items (Koivula et al., 2023): (1) ECEC meets our family’s needs, (2) My child is regarded as an individual and his/her background is taken into consideration, (3) My child receives care and attention that meet his/her individual needs (safety, meals, rest, etc.), (4) the interactive relationships between my child and the staff are good, (5) My child is listened to, and he/she can take part in planning and developing the activities”. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to examine the association between children’s social competence and their social-emotional wellbeing in ECEC in both directions and the moderating effects ECEC arrangements (weekly time in ECEC and ECEC providers). Control variables of family and child factors such as the gender of children and their parents, children’s living arrangements (with both parents or others), children’s citizenship status (with themselves or both parents were born inside or outside Finland), parental highest educational level, financial satisfaction levels, mental health were added to the models so that only the effects of ECEC will be considered.
Expected Outcomes
The results showed that children’s higher prosocial behaviors were significantly and positively associated with their enjoyment in ECEC, and higher antisocial behaviors were significantly and negatively associated with their enjoyment in ECEC in both directions. In addition, children’s social competence had significant association with their basic need fulfilment but not conversely. Moreover, weekly hours in ECEC and ECEC providers did not moderate the relation between children’s social competence and their social-emotional wellbeing in ECEC in both directions. That is, whether the four-year-old children spent longer time in ECEC or whether they attended private or public ECEC, the association between their social competence and social-emotional wellbeing in ECEC remained the same in both directions. The study’s results highlight the provision of joyful environments that enhance young children’s both social competence and social-emotional wellbeing. It also contributes to broader knowledge on the two-way linkages between children’s social competence and social-emotional wellbeing, i.e., enjoyment and basic need fulfilment – the prerequisite conditions for children’s rights, agency and participation.
References
Averdijk, M., Ribeaud, D., & Eisner, M.P. (2022). External childcare and socio-behavioral development in Switzerland: Long-term relations from childhood into young adulthood. PLoS ONE, 17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263571 Council of the European Union (2019). Council recommendation on high-quality early childhood education and care systems. Brussels: Council of the European Union. Finnish National Agency for Education [FNAE]. (2018). National core curriculum for early childhood education and care. Regulations and guidelines 2018:3c. Finnish National Agency for Education. Huston A. C., Bobbitt K. C., & Bentley A. (2015). Time spent in child care: How and why does it affect social development? Developmental Psychology, 51(5), 621–634. https://doi.org/10.1037/a00389511 PMID: 25751096 Junttila, N., Vauras, M., Niemi, P., & Laakkonen, E. (2012). Multisource assessed social competence as a predictor for children's and adolescents' later loneliness, social anxiety, and social phobia. Journal for educational research online, 4, 73–98. Retrieved from: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/3850690?auxfun=&lang=fi_FI Koivula, M., Räikkönen, E., Turja, L., Poikonen, P.-L., & Laakso, M.-L. (2023). Family and work-related risk factors in children's social–emotional well-being and parent–educator cooperation in flexibly scheduled early childhood education and care. International Journal of Social Welfare, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijsw.12585 Kumpulainen, K. (2018). A principled, personalised, trusting and child centric ECEC system in Finland. In S. L. Kagan (Ed.), The Early Advantage 1: Early Childhood Systems That Lead by Example - A Comparative Focus on International Early Childhood Education (pp. 72– 98). Teachers College Press. Retrieved from https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/255278/Chapter_4_Finland.pdf?sequence=1 Muthén, L., & Muthén, B. (1998–2023). Mplus user's guide. Muthén & Muthén. Pakarinen, E., Lerkkanen, M. K., & von Suchodoletz, A. (2020). Teacher emotional support in relation to social competence in preschool classrooms. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 43(4), 444–460. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2020.1791815 Sandseter, E.B.H., Seland, M. (2018). 4–6-year-old children’s experience of subjective well-being and social relations in ECEC institutions. Child Indicators Research 11, 1585–1601 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-017-9504-5 van Trijp, C., Lekhal, R., Drugli, M. B., Rydland, V., & Solheim Buøen, E. (2021). Validation of the Leiden Inventory for the Child's Well-Being in Daycare (LICW-D) Questionnaire in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care Centers. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 767137. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767137 van Trijp, K., & Lekhal, R. (2018). Promoting children's well-being in ECEC: A challenging goal. Journal of International Doctoral Research, 7(1), 30–54. Zachrisson, H. D., & Lekhal, R. (2014). Psychology of child well-being. Early childhood education and care. In A. Ben-Arieh, F. Casas, I. Frønes, & J. E. Korbin (Eds.), Theories, methods and policies in global perspective (pp. 599–601). Springer.
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