Abstract: Early childhood development is influenced by a system of environmental factors at different levels, and the family is the micro-environment that has the closest direct contact with children in the system of environmental factors. This study is based on a trial of an early development intervention for rural children in less developed areas of China and its effects. A follow-up study of 966 children and their caregivers in the intervention and control groups found that a comprehensive intervention that included both the caregiver and the child as the target of the intervention and aimed to improve the caregiver's parenting skills and the child's early development level had an effect on both the caregiver and the child and that this effect had a mediating mechanism, with the caregiver's parenting practices mediating the extent to which the child's early development level benefited from the intervention, while the intervention also improved the caregiver's parenting practices. The more significant the improvement in parenting practices, the better the child's developmental level. The results provide a practical basis for the type of family and child development intervention strategies to be adopted in less developed areas of China, and the comprehensive interventions in this study have some value in terms of scaling up. For families with children in less developed rural areas, where knowledge, relevant experience, resources and support systems are scarce, comprehensive interventions are more conducive to building a dynamic developmental system for children, and can help families and children in less developed rural areas to break out of their developmental ruts.

儿童早期发展受不同层次环境因素系统影响,家庭是环境因素影响系统中与儿童直接接触且最紧密的微观环境.本研究以我国欠发达地区农村儿童开展的早期发展干预实验及效果为研究内容,对966名干预组和对照组儿童及养育人进行追踪研究.结果表明,将养育人和儿童作为干预对象,以提高养育人养育能力、儿童早期发展水平为目的的综合干预措施,不仅能产生双重效果,且效果之间存在中介作用机制.养育人的养育实践对儿童在干预中的受益程度存在中介作用,养育人的养育实践水平改善越明显,儿童早期发展水平越好.这一结果为在我国欠发达地区采取何种家庭和儿童发展干预策略提供了实践依据,本研究提出的综合性干预具有一定规模化价值.针对知识、实践能力、资源和支持系统较为匮乏的欠发达地区农村儿童家庭来说,开展综合性干预更有利于为儿童建立动力发展系统,帮助他们跳出发展困境.