Parental literacy, parent-child relationship, family environment and perceived emotional competence among preschool children in China: Inputs to an enhanced curriculum in family education

Abstract

This study used descriptive-correlational research design to analyze the extent of parental literacy, parent-child relationship, family environment, and perceived emotional competence among preschool children in Shangqiu City, China for school year 2021--2022 as inputs to an enhanced curriculum in family education. Relationships among the variables were also sought. The data of parents and teachers of 396 preschool children in four kindergartens in Shangqiu city were collected through a survey. The analysis showed that there are more male among the preschool children of Shangqiu City, the number of children in three age groups are roughly the same, and nearly one half of respondents’ parents have college education. The level of parental literacy is high, while the level of parent-child relationship, family environment and perceived emotional competence are at moderate level. There are significant relationships between parental educational attainment, parental occupation, and parental literacy, and family environment, however, there is no significant relationship between parent-child relationship and perceived emotional competence among children. Perceived emotional competence increases with the increase of children's age, but there is no significant relationship between children's gender and the four variables. Parental literacy, parent-child relationship, and family environment are significantly correlated with perceived emotional competence among preschool children, among which, parent-child relationship and family environment are positively correlated with them. The family education curriculum in Shangqiu city is still in the primary stage, and there is no perfect family education curriculum system, which is far from meeting the needs of parents for family education knowledge and skills.