Ready or Not — Study Details

Study aims

We aim to (a) gather a rich picture of changes over time in children’s social relationships, cognitive skills and well-being, and (b) investigate similarities and contrasts in how children, parents and teachers view the transition to school.

To achieve these goals, we will involve children from Kindergarten Year 2 and 3 in our study, using

(1) individual child sessions (administered via zoom with a parent/caregiver present);

(2) interviews/questionnaires with teachers and parents and

(3) (if possible) filmed peer play.

We hope that our work can provide scientific evidence in informing Hong Kong’s early education policies.

What will the child do?

Study activities, facilitated and filmed by trained research assistants and PhD students with experience of working with children, include:

1) One to two Zoom sessions with simple games designed to measure children’s developmental skills (e.g., memory, language, self-control) and gather their views about the school. Tasks will be delivered in bite-size pieces, interspersed with parent-child play;

2) (Optional) A 10-minute school-based peer-play session in pairs, involving a ‘Mobilo’ set and wipe-clean play mat that will both be given to your child’s school to keep. We will send each family a copy of the video-footage as a token of gratitude (provided that we have permission from both sets of parents).

What will the parents and teachers do?

Family support is key to children’s success in school, but little is known about how this transition affects families; how families can help children progress from Kindergarten Year 2 to Year 3? What is the role of parent-school communication in supporting children’s school readiness and success in school?

We would like to invite both teachers and parents to fill in some questionnaires to help us better answer these important questions.

Schools:

Assist in distributing our premade invitation letters/ messages to parents or teachers

Teachers:

10 - 15 minutes questionnaire about their own wellbeing, their students’ development, and their relationship with the students and their parents.

Parents:

15-20 minutes questionnaire about their wellbeing, family relationship, their child’s strength and difficulties, and some basic information about the family.

If you want to take part, what can you do?

Click Register and fill in some brief information + contact details. We will get in touch

 Frequently Asked Questions

If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us

  • You can withdraw from the study at any time without any consequences. You do not need to provide any reason of withdrawal. To withdraw, you will need to contact the study lead and we will delete your data from our records.

  • Yes, we have an English version of the questionnaires and activities so you can still join our study.

  • The current study is likely to end in 2023 but you do not need to participate in the entire study period. We have three study stages and you are welcome to join any of these subject to your preference.

  • The current study has been reviewed by the University of Cambridge Psychology Ethics Committee, and all procedures have been checked by The Education University of Hong Kong Human Research Ethics Committee and the Institutional Review Board at Tsinghua University.

    We do not anticipate any distress; however, during the zoom session, children will be asked at regular intervals whether they would like to stop the zoom session or whether they are happy to continue. A short break will also be offered to your child at regular intervals during the zoom session and parents/caregivers can request a break on behalf of your child at any point. Children and their parents/caregivers will also be reminded that they can end the zoom session at any time they would like. Parents/caregivers can withdraw their child from the study without prejudice at any time. To withdraw, you will need to contact the study lead and we will delete your data from our records.