Recommendations for advancing child engagement research in ECEC: clarify the construct, validate measures, and develop child self-reports¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 review), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review's forward-looking recommendations for research on child engagement in ECEC are threefold: clarify the concept of child engagement in terms of its generalizability, specificity, and temporality; describe corresponding operationalizations precisely; and validate existing measures. It states, "Our recommendations also include validating existing measures of child engagement and developing self-reports for young children." These actions respond to the definitional scarcity and measure fragmentation the review documents.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Researchers should attend to generalizability, specificity, and temporality when defining engagement, and precisely describe operationalizations.

Constraints¶

• The review notes self-reports from young children are challenging because they have problems understanding complex or abstract item phrasing and display response bias such as extreme responses and nondifferentiation.

Target Learners¶

• young children attending ECEC settings

Target Learning Goals¶

• accurate conceptualization and measurement of child engagement in ECEC research and interventions

Claims¶

• Only about one-third of quantitative ECEC engagement studies provide an explicit definition of child engagement or involvement [+W]
• Explicit theoretical frameworks of engagement were provided in only 14% of the reviewed ECEC studies [+W]
• The field uses 77 unique established engagement measures, yet more than one-third of studies rely on unestablished author-created measures [+W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Ritoša, A., Åström, F., Björck, E., Borglund, L., Karlsson, E., McHugh, E., & Nylander, E. (2023). Measuring Children's Engagement in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings: A Scoping Literature Review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09815-4