Abstract
Background: There has been growing interest in the social-emotional development of children. However, the social-emotional development of children in Asia remains a knowledge gap. This systematic review identifies and summarises existing studies on the social-emotional development of children in Asia. Method: We conducted a systematic review using the Guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). This review included primary social-emotional development studies conducted in Asia and published in English. The study findings were entered into Microsoft Excel, and data were summarized quantitatively and thematically. Results: We reviewed 45 studies that met the inclusion criteria, and they were from 12 Asian countries, mostly the East Asia region (China and Hong Kong). Most of the studies were cross-sectional in design (n = 23, 51.1%). The majority of the studies focused on overall social-emotional development (n = 24, 53.3%), followed by social competence (n = 7, 15.6%), emotional development (n = 5, 11.1%), social-emotional learning (n = 3, 6.7%), problem behaviour (n = 3, 6.7%), self-regulation (n = 2, 4.4%), and 1 study (2.2%) focused on both social-emotional learning and problem behaviour. We did not perform the meta-analysis as the study findings were of heterogeneity.Conclusions: Studies on children’s social-emotional development in Asia are limited and mainly from the East Asia region. More diverse cultural studies on the social-emotional functioning of children in Asia are needed to understand children’s social-emotional development in Asia. Finally, parent and teacher knowledge on children’s social-emotional development should also be examined more closely. Systematic review registration: The protocol for this review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42021238826).
Developing grit : a case study of a summer camp, which empowers students with learning disabilities through the use of social-emotional learning
