Effectiveness of Early Childhood Care and Education on Intelligence of Children 2 to 24 Months, and their Mother’s Affective Capital and Parenting Stress

Early childhood care and education has recently attracted much attention for promoting optimal development of children. The present study was administered to evaluate the effectiveness of early childhood care and education on the intelligence of children 2 to 24 months and their mother’s affective capital and parenting stress.

A total of 25 participants (50 mothers and children) were selected through purposive sampling for each of the groups of 2 to 12 and 13 to 24 months. The Cattell Infant Intelligence Scale, Affective Capital Questionnaire, and Parenting Stress Questionnaire were used to assess independent variables. Each group of mothers and children received early care and education for 6 weeks. Data were analyzed using a paired samples t-test.

The results indicated that early childhood care and education significantly improved the intelligence of children 2 to 12 and 13 to 24 months by 1.20 and 1.59, and their motherschr('39') affective capital by 25.52 and 12.47, respectively (P<0.01). The observations also suggested that early childhood care and education reduced the parenting stress among mothers of children aged 2 to 24 months by 103.20 and 37.47, respectively (P<0.01).

It is recommended to pay more attention to early childhood care and education in families and kindergartens due to its effectiveness in improving the intelligence of children 2 to 24 months, as well as increasing the affective capital and reducing the stress of parenting in mothers.