The Impact Of Early Intervention On Children Aged 0-3 Years Old In Rural Areas On The Development Of Children In Kindergarte

China’s economy has evolved swiftly throughout the last 40 years of reform and opening up,and it is currently transitioning from high-speed economic growth to highquality development.However,China still confronts numerous obstacles and hurdles on its path to achieving common prosperity.The development of China’s urban and rural areas is now imbalanced and insufficient.Implementing a rural revitalization strategy is an unavoidable prerequisite for resolving the current conflict between imbalanced and insufficient development.The fundamental goal of the rural revitalization plan is to consolidate poverty reduction gains.Poverty alleviation measures focused at absolute poverty should be gradually adjusted to daily assistance for relative poverty and antipoverty initiatives to address basic issues.Human capital development is a key strategy of anti-poverty that can substantially enhance the poor’s quality of life and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty,according to a large body of scientific research and policy practices around the world.Human capital accumulation in China’s rural areas is woefully inadequate,and there is still much opportunity for improvement.The window period of human capital,early childhood,is the stage with the best return on investment.Investing in early childhood development,for example,is significantly more profitable than investing in remedial interventions,such as later school schooling.However,domestic and international early childhood interventions have not to reach a consensus on the effects of cognitive ability,non-cognitive ability,education,employment,health,and other factors at various stages of an individual’s life cycle,and there is a lack of heterogeneity and mechanism analysis in intervention impact.In China,there is a scarcity of follow-up research on early intervention.Furthermore,the dynamic nature of human capital formation processes and how they change during the first few years of life have not been answered.This study constructs a model based on the new human capital theory,employs panel data of 1,365 children and their families from 100 villages,20 counties in Qinba Mountains,adopts econometrics and random controlled trial methods to better understand the preschool-age child development status and the current situation of the nurturing environment.Investigate the impact and mechanisms of early childhood intervention(building village-level parenting centers,offering free play activity guidance,picture books and toys,etc.)on the development of preschool-age children.On the basis of the research conclusions,summarize and improve China’s human capital investment strategy,and explore feasible and effective strategies to improve the efficiency of human capital investment.In order to achieve the above goals,the research contents of this paper include:(1)Research on preschool-age child development status and the current state of the nurturing environment in rural areas;(2)Effect and heterogeneity analysis of early childhood intervention on the preschool-age child development;(3)The mechanism of effect of early childhood intervention on the preschool-age child development.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)In terms of children’s cognitive development,the cognitive development level of children in rural areas is slightly lower than the average level of children of the same age in China,and there is a certain risk of cognitive delay.The risk of non-cognitive development delay is even more serious.In terms of the parenting status of children,the parenting style of the child’s main caregiver is more authoritarian;the child’s main caregiver’s parenting behavior has shifted from play activities to educational activities,but there is still a gap with caregivers in developed countries;The mental health of caregivers is at risk,with higher proportions of depression,anxiety and stress tendencies than the general population.(2)Early childhood intervention can significantly improve preschool-aged children’s cognitive development level and prosocial behavior.However,there was no significant effect on emotional problems,behavioral problems,hyperactivity problems and peer interaction problems;the higher the frequency of intervention in sample families,the more advantageous the children’s cognitive development and prosocial behavior in preschool-age;Children and families who were disadvantaged prior to the intervention experienced greater gains in the intervention,with greater effects on children born prematurely,with low parental education and low family assets,but the effects were focused only on cognitive development.(3)There are 3 possible pathways of the effectiveness: the self-producing effect of the child’s ability accumulation at age 0-3;the primary caregiver’s level of mental health and educational expectations;the primary caregiver shows more warmth and acceptance in parenting style,both the primary caregiver and the father have a higher frequency of parenting behaviors,and the family creates a better cognitively stimulating environment and better educational decisions.Synthesizing the findings of this study and prior relevant studies on early childhood development,we propose several recommendations for early human capital investment:(1)expand the content of child interventions beyond health and care,and create child development-oriented early childhood development service programs for children aged 0to 3.More emphasis should be placed on operability and practicality of intervention programs,as well as participation rates and resource usage;(2)Pay attention to early childhood non-cognitive skills,investigate early intervention programs to improve children’s non-cognitive development,and evaluate the mental health of child caregivers in rural areas;(3)Ensure the quality of preschool education,promote follow-up measures to match the early childhood intervention,and expand public kindergartens or more preschool education resources to the village level.