Children with low effortful control benefit in high-quality home learning environment: Evidence from China.

The present study examined whether the home learning environment was longitudinally associated with children's language and cognitive development, and whether child effortful control moderated this association during the preschool years. Three hundred twenty-six Chinese parent-child dyads (at baseline, M_age = 63.36 months, SD = 9.87) were included in this 10-month follow-up study. Data were acquired from multiple sources, comprising paternal reports, maternal reports, and standardized tasks. Results revealed that the home learning environment positively predicted preschool-aged children's language and cognitive development. Interestingly, this association was significant among children with lower effortful control but not with higher effortful control. The findings supported the differential susceptibility model by showing that children with low effortful control benefited more from early experience when parents provided sufficient language and cognitive stimulation at home. These suggest that providing a high-quality home learning environment may be a feasible target for interventions aimed at improving the development of children with low effortful control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).