Preschool Children's Developmental Outcomes in the Face of COVID-19 School Closures

项目摘要 COVID-19大流行最令人担忧的方面之一是其对学校的干扰，特别是对 更小的孩子。几乎每个美国司法管辖区都下令或建议在3月29日之前关闭学校 这意味着孩子们在家里度过了近三分之一的学年。由一个机构通知， 关于因自然灾害和暑假、教育工作者和儿童 发展专家预测，与新冠肺炎有关的学校关闭可能会导致学习损失， 所有年龄段儿童的社会情感和执行功能下降。然而，以前的研究 自然灾害和暑假专门针对K-12和大学适龄人口。 学龄前儿童长时间外出对发展结果影响的研究 令人惊讶的是，学校缺席。然而，由于他们正处于大脑快速发育的阶段， 学龄前儿童的学习经历可能特别容易受到干扰。 了解学龄前儿童的学业、社会情感和执行功能丧失的程度 因此，关闭是制定干预措施的一个重要组成部分， 发展成果，并为学校重新开放计划提供信息。我们建议解决这些关键问题， 通过解决以下研究问题。 1.学龄前儿童的成就、社会情感和执行功能结果如何 与之前的儿童队列相比， 幼儿园没有被关闭吗低收入或西班牙裔儿童的结果是否不同？ 2.在学前班关闭期间，父母和儿童的应对和家庭学习支持水平如何 调节儿童的成就、社会情感和执行功能的结果？

Project Summary One of the most concerning aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is its disruption of school, particularly for younger children. Nearly every U.S. jurisdiction ordered or recommended the closings of schools by March 29th which meant that children spent nearly one third of their academic year at home. Informed by a body of literature on lack of schooling continuity drawn from natural disasters and summer break, educators and child development experts have predicted that COVID-related school closures will likely lead to learning loss and declines in social-emotional and executive functioning for children of all ages. However, previous research on natural disasters and summer break has focused exclusively on the K-12 and college-aged populations. Research on how preschool-aged children’s developmental outcomes are affected by prolonged time out of school is surprisingly absent. However, by virtue of their being situated in a stage of rapid brain growth, preschool-aged children may be particularly susceptible to disruptions to their schooling experiences. Understanding the extent of academic, social-emotional, and executive functioning loss from preschool closures is therefore an important component for developing interventions that can mitigate loss in developmental outcomes and for informing school re-opening plans. We propose to address these crucial issues by addressing the following research questions. 1. How do the achievement, social-emotional, and executive functioning outcomes of preschool children who were subjected to COVID-19 related preschool closures compare to prior cohorts of children who were not subjected to preschool closures? Do the results differ for lower-income or Hispanic children? 2. How do parents’ and children’s level of coping and home learning supports during preschool closures moderate children’s achievement, social-emotional, and executive functioning outcomes?