Early Childhood Development
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Stanford Affiliate, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
Clinical Associate Professor, Pediatrics
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Xin She is a Global Health pediatrician with 15 years of experience working in low-resource settings. She speaks 5 languages and is committed to creating interdisciplinary, equitable solutions for all vulnerable children to thrive. She is a national representative at the Women Physicians Wellness, Equity and Leadership Alliance (WEL).

She has published on mental health epidemiology and health inequity in Chinese children, early childhood development and quality improvement in pediatric care for Haitian Children. She has presented nationally and internationally on Social Medicine and Global Health, youth mental health, early childhood development, Wellness and professional development. She has collaborated with academic, governmental and non-profit partners in inner city US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, DR Congo and China.

She has mentored more than 100 youth globally, ranging from rural Chinese children, inner city American youth, to medical trainees in Haiti, at Harvard and at Stanford. She is a mentor at national programs for underrepresented minority students and for international junior researchers. She has been twice awarded the AAP national Advocacy conference scholarship and regularly advocates for underserved communities locally and nationally.

She chairs the Pediatric Wellness Committee at CPMC regional site and serves as a Wellness Champion for the department of Pediatrics. She is certified in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Reiki (Master). She is also a Cordon Bleu graduate in Spanish cuisine and loves hosting friends from all over the world.

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Stanford Affiliate, Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
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PhD

Dr. Singh is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and her multidisciplinary research investigates the neurobiology underlying mood disorders and related psychiatric conditions. Her team uses a clinical translational approach to examine neural circuit dynamics in the human brain in order to ascertain neurobiological correlates of behavior. A major focus of the research is directed to risk factors of mood disorders including genetics as well as developmental exposure and adaptation to early life and family environmental stress. Her team also conducts human clinical trials in developing novel therapies for youth onset mood disorders.

The Stanford Pediatric Mood Disorders Research Program promotes healthy brain development across the lifespan through a deeper understanding of how youth adapt to mood symptoms and stress to have successful transitions into adulthood. The program's bold vision is to prevent chronic and progressive mood disorder and to improve the mental health of children, adolescents, young adults, and families through globally recognized research, education, and innovation. The program’s research is multidisciplinary, bringing together experts from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, biostatistics, genetics, regulatory, and industry to seek answers for complex questions related to brain-behavior-environment relations in developing youth with and at risk for mood disorders, and to accelerate discovery of novel therapeutic strategies.

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One out of every three children under age 5 in developing countries lives in conditions that impede human capital development. In this study, we survey the literature on parenting training programs implemented before age 5, with the aim to increase parental investment in human capital accumulation in developing countries. Our review focuses on the implementation and effectiveness of parenting training programs (i.e., training in child psychosocial stimulation and/or training about nutrition). We emphasize the mechanisms that drive treatment-induced change in human capital outcomes and identify the demand- and supply-side behaviors that affect efficacy and effectiveness. Although the literature includes evidence on program features that are associated with successful interventions, further evidence on the dynamics of human capital formation, documentation of medium- to long-term persistence of treatment impacts, and research on the implementation and evaluation of programs at scale are needed to delineate a scalable and inclusive program that provides long-term treatment impacts.

Journal Publisher
Annual Review of Resource Economics
Authors
Dorien Emmers
Juan Carlos Caro
Scott Rozelle
Sean Sylvia
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This paper examines the impact of parental beliefs on child development outcomes (for both cognitive and social–emotional skills) based on a three-wave longitudinal survey in rural China. The survey waves were conducted when the sample children were 18–30 months, 22–36 months, and 49–65 months, respectively. A total of 815 children and their primary caregivers who participated in all three wave surveys were enrolled in this study. Using difference-in-differences and propensity score matching approaches, the results indicate that strengthened parental beliefs have a positive and significant impact on child social–emotional development. Specifically, between the periods of the Wave 1 survey (when children were 18–30 months old) and the Wave 3 survey (when children were 49–65 months old), and between the Wave 2 survey (when children were 22–36 months old) and the Wave 3 survey, strengthened parental beliefs were causally associated with more favorable child social–emotional scores by 0.44 SD (p < 0.01) and 0.49 SD (p < 0.01), respectively. No significant impact, however, was found between the period of the Wave 1 survey and the Wave 2 survey. In contrast, weakened parental beliefs had a negative and significant impact on child social–emotional development. Specifically, weakened parental beliefs were causally associated with worse child social–emotional abilities by 0.35 SD (p < 0.01), 0.30 SD (p < 0.01), and 0.22 (p < 0.05) for the time period of the Wave 1 to Wave 2, Wave 1 to Wave 3, and Wave 2 to Wave 3, respectively. No significant impact of parental beliefs, however, was found on child cognitive development. In addition, the findings of the mediation analysis show that only a marginal impact of parental beliefs on child social–emotional development can be indirectly explained by parental beliefs through parenting practices. This study calls on policy makers to improve parental beliefs and parenting practices in the hope that it will lead to better child development in rural China.

Journal Publisher
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Authors
Lei Wang
Conghong Yang
Dingjing Jiang
Siqi Zhang
Qi Jiang
Scott Rozelle
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Journal Articles
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Using a three-wave longitudinal survey conducted in 815 households in rural Western China, this study aims to examine the association between parental self-perception and early childhood development and the mediation effect of parental investment on the association between parental self-perception and child development when the sample children are at different ages in the early childhood (18–30, 22–36, and 49–65 months). The results demonstrate that parental self-perception are positively and significantly associated with child social-emotional development in all three ages of childhood (from 18 to 65 months). Positive and significant association between parental self-perception and child cognitive development is found in the ages from 22 to 65 months. In addition, findings of this study show that parental investment plays a mediating role in the association between parental self-perception and child cognitive development. The study calls on policymakers to help to strengthen parental self-perception and parental investment related to early childhood development, which should result in better child development in rural China.

Journal Publisher
Frontiers in Public Health
Authors
Lei Wang
Ting Wang
Hui Li
Kaiwen Guo
Lynn Hu
Siqi Zhang
Scott Rozelle
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Background: Social-emotional development during the first three years of life is associated with later social-emotional development and cognitive development. In rural China, research has found large shares of children under age three are developmentally delayed, yet little is known about the paths of social-emotional development before age 3 or how developmental paths predict later social-emotional skills and cognitive skills. 

Aims: To investigate the paths of child social-emotional development during ages 0–3 and examine how different paths predict social-emotional development and cognitive development at preschool age. 

Methods: Three waves of longitudinal panel data from 1245 children in rural Western China was collected. Child social-emotional development was measured by the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional. Child cognitive development was measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and by the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Fourth Edition. Four paths of child social-emotional development were classified: “never” social-emotionally delayed; “persistently” social-emotionally delayed; “improving,” or “deteriorating.” 

Results: 331 (27%) were never social-emotionally delayed; 373 children (30%) were persistently social-emotionally delayed; 149 children (12%) experienced improving social-emotional development; and 392 children (31%) experienced deteriorating social-emotional development. Children who were never social-emotionally delayed or who were on an “improving” path had higher social-emotional development at preschool age (p < .01). Children who were persistently social-emotionally delayed (p < .5) and on a deteriorating path (p < .01) had lower social-emotional development at preschool age. Children on the persistently delay path also were shown to have lower levels of cognitive development at preschool age (p < .01). 

Conclusions: Different paths of child social-emotional development before age 3 are associated with different social-emotional and cognitive development at preschool age.

Journal Publisher
Early Human Development
Authors
Lei Wang
Yifei Chen
Siqi Zhang
Scott Rozelle
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Research in developed countries has found that paternal involvement has positive and significant effects on early childhood development (ECD). Less is known, however, about the state of paternal involvement and its influence on ECD in rural China. Using data collected in Southern China that included 1,460 children aged 6–42 months and their fathers (as well as their primary caregivers), this study examines the association between paternal involvement and ECD. Although the results demonstrate that the average level of paternal involvement is low in rural China, paternal involvement is related to a significant increase in three domains of ECD (cognition, language, and social-emotional skills). Older children benefit significantly more than do younger children from paternal involvement in all domains of ECD. The results also show that, if the mother is the primary caregiver, the mother’s higher educational level and the family’s higher socioeconomic status are positively associated with paternal involvement.
Journal Publisher
Applied Developmental Science
Authors
Lei Wang
Hui Li
Sarah-Eve Dill
Siqi Zhang
Scott Rozelle
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Working Papers
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We present evidence from a randomized experiment testing the impacts of a six-month early childhood home-visiting program on child outcomes at school entry. Two and a half years after completion of the program, we find persistent effects on child working memory - a key skill of executive functioning that plays a central role in children's development of cognitive and socio-emotional skills. We also find that the program had persistent effects on parental time investments and preschool enrollment decisions. Children were enrolled earlier and in higher quality preschools, the latter reflecting a shift in preferences over preschool attributes toward quality. Our findings imply an important role for the availability of high-quality subsequent schooling in sustaining the impacts of early intervention programs.
Authors
Lei Wang
Yiwei Qian
Nele Warrinnier
Orazio Attanasio
Scott Rozelle
Sean Sylvia
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Journal Articles
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We present the results of a cluster-randomized controlled trial that evaluates the effects of a free, center-based parenting intervention on early cognitive development and parenting practices in 100 rural villages in China. We then compare these effects to a previous trial of a home-based intervention conducted in the same region, using the same parenting curriculum and public service system, accounting for potential differences between the studies. We find that the center-based intervention did not have a significant impact on child development outcomes, but did lead to increases in the material investments, time investments, and parenting skills of caregivers. The average impact of the center-based intervention on child skills and investments in children was significantly smaller than the home-visiting intervention. Analysis of the possible mechanisms suggests that the difference in effects was driven primarily by different patterns of selection into program participation.
Journal Publisher
World Development
Authors
Jingdong Zhong
Alexis Medina
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Journal Articles
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Scott Rozelle, Yuqing Zheng, and Chengfang Liu were the guest editors of this special issue on agriculture, the rural economy and China's growth in the 21st century. Scott Rozelle also authored a publication in this issue.
Journal Publisher
China Agricultural Economic Review
Authors
Yuqing Zheng
Number
2
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