The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on children and families worldwide. Children’s mental health has been at the forefront of pandemic research, with several observational studies documenting its decline. Limited person-centred research exists, however, investigating the diverse mental health responses of vulnerable children during COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to examine the profiles of 289 low-income children’s mental health transitions from pre-COVID-19 to during COVID-19. Mothers’ reports of children’s mental health using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire from before (X¯= 2.73 years, SD = 0.23) and during (X¯= 5.31 years, SD = 0.59) COVID-19 were used. Three comparable profile solutions were identified pre- and early during the pandemic. Latent transition analysis revealed diverse patterns of children’s mental health trajectory from prior to during COVID-19. Based on transition probabilities, the majority of children in the Average Levels of Internalizing/Externalizing Problems and Externalizing Problems profiles pre-pandemic showed stability in profile membership. Interestingly, most children in the high levels of Internalizing/Externalizing Problems profile pre-pandemic experienced some improvement in their mental health. Pre-pandemic maternal mental health and parenting had significant associations with children’s profile membership at both time points. Conclusions Our findings reveal the heterogeneity in children's mental health responses in times of large-scale crises. They also identify how pre-existing maternal risk factors may underlie the diverse experiences of children who underwent declining, stable, or improving mental health profiles during the COVID-19 pandemic.  AUTHORSFunded Project Intervention Creationand...

Creativity has been identified as one of the most important skills of the 21st century. The development of creativity begins at an early age. Given that most children attend early childhood education and care (ECEC) during this critical developmental period, it is important that there is consensus on how to define and assess creativity in these settings. This scoping review examines how creativity is defined and assessed in ECEC settings. Searches were conducted in ERIC, PsycInfo, Education Source, and Child Development and Adolescent Studies. All articles included in this review are peer-reviewed, available in English, focus on children between the ages of zero to six in ECEC settings, and include measures of children’s creativity. A total of 81 articles met our inclusion criteria. Across these articles, 85 different creativity constructs were identified. Only 22 constructs were reported in two or more studies (e.g., Fluency, Elaboration, Pretend Play) and these were grouped into the following four conceptual groups: (1) Imagination, (2) Cognitive Creativity, (3) Curiosity and Engagement, and (4) Multifaceted Creativity. A framework of creativity by conceptual construct group was generated. A total of 47 measures of creativity were identified with 14 found in two or more studies. Results found considerable heterogeneity in how creativity is defined and measured in ECEC. Implications for practice and future research are provided. We have also created infographics to highlight key aspects of this content. They are included below. AUTHORSFunded Project Intervention Creationand...

Peer collaboration is a complex skill that emerges in early childhood. However, researchers and practitioners lack a shared understanding/definition of what peer collaboration means and how to observe it in early educational settings. This review aimed to examine definitions of peer collaboration and the behaviours observed in research on peer collaboration in children zero to six years of age. The current scoping review follows the Joanna Briggs Institute’s methodology. The search syntax was applied in PsycInfo, Education Resource, ERIC, and Child Development and Adolescent Studies. This scoping review includes 123 articles on children engaged in peer collaboration in early educational settings. Inductive and deductive thematic coding was conducted, followed by descriptive statistics. Four domains from the definitions of peer collaboration were identified. These were: “Achieving a Greater Objective”, “Verbal Communication”, “Prosocial Skills”, and “Knowledge Exchange”. Co-occurrences between these domains were identified using a network analysis. The following six domains, describing how collaboration was observed in young children, were identified across the literature: “Interactive Characteristics”, “Communication”, “Activity Structure”, “Assessment of Performance”, “Reciprocity”, and “Cognitive Skills”. Finally, we identified whether observations of collaboration focused on collaborative processes (i.e. behaviours occurring during collaboration) or products (i.e. outcomes). We found that peer collaboration in early educational settings was more commonly viewed as a collaborative process (although this varied by domain). We conclude by offering a synthesised definition of collaboration and a framework to begin thinking about measuring collaboration based on the findings from this study. AUTHORSFunded Project Intervention Creationand...