Enhancing resilience in rural Chinese preschoolers: a randomized controlled trial of play-based picture-book reading intervention for 4-5-year-olds

ABSTRACT

This study addresses a gap in resilience interventions for rural preschoolers by validating a 14-week play-based picture-book reading program involving 80 Chinese preschoolers aged 4–5 years. Participants were randomly assigned to non-intervention (NI), play intervention (PI), picture-book reading intervention (PRI), or play-based picture-book reading intervention (PPRI) groups. Kindergarten teachers and parents reported children’s resilience with the Chinese version of Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for Preschoolers at pretest, post-test, and follow-up. Results revealed that intervention groups (PI, PRI, PPRI) exhibited higher resilience gain scores than the NI group. Notably, the PPRI group demonstrated greater resilience gains compared to the PRI and PI groups. Furthermore, the intervention effects of the PPRI group were maintained for two months following the intervention. Those findings suggest that PPRI may be a valuable intervention for enhancing resilience in preschoolers, with potential applications in kindergarten classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience interventions
• play-based learning
• picture-book reading
• early childhood education
• randomized controlled trial
• preschoolers

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the participation of all the preschool children and their parents. We have no competing interests to mention. We certify that all necessary precautions have been taken to safeguard the intellectual property rights associated with this work. Regarding intellectual property rights and the timing of publishing, there are no known barriers to this publication. Nevertheless, we can attest that all relevant institutions have approved any experimental study in this publication that involves humans or animals. Data will be supplied upon request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the General Project in Humanities and Social Science Research of Ministry of Education of China under grant number 23YJC880115.

Notes on contributors

Heyue Fang

Heyue Fang, a graduate student in Pre-school Education at Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University. Her research direction is child psychological development.

Yunpeng Wu

Yunpeng Wu, PhD, is a Associate Professor in the School of Teacher Education at Dezhou University, China. His research focuses on personality and social development.

Yali Dong

Yali Dong, a graduate student in Pre-school Education at Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University. She focuses on the cognitive and social development of children in her study.

Li Li

Li Li, a graduate student in Pre-school Education at Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University. Her research direction is child psychological development.

Yu Gong

Yu Gong, a graduate student in Pre-school Education at Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University. She focuses on the cognitive and social development of children in her study.

Jie Wang

Jie Wang, a graduate student in Pre-school Education at Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University. Her research direction is child psychological development.

Jianfen Wu

Jianfen Wu, PhD, is a professor at the Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, China. Her research interests include children's cognitive and social development, theory of mind, and mixed-age education.