In the face of COVID-19, many schools have to educate their students using online activities. During this time, whether and how parents are involved may be of particular importance for young children—who are less able to learn independently via the Internet due to their developmental immaturity. Therefore, this study examined the cross-sectional association of maternal involvement in child online learning with child adjustment during the COVID-19 pandemic and tested maternal mindfulness as a moderator. Data were collected from 236 mothers of kindergarten-aged children (mean age = 55.91 months; 75% of them were girls) during the fourth wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong, China. Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, mothers rated their involvement and mindfulness and their children’s pre-academic ability and internalizing and externalizing behaviors and provide demographic information. Regression models revealed that maternal involvement was associated positively with child pre-academic ability and negatively with child internalizing behaviors, but such associations were only significant for children with more mindful mothers. Maternal mindfulness did not moderate the negative association between maternal involvement and child externalizing behaviors. Findings highlighted the role of maternal mindfulness in child development, suggesting that it may be crucial to promote maternal involvement and mindfulness during the pandemic and perhaps beyond. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

Research Findings: This cross-sectional study examined the class- and child-level associations of social-emotional competence with behavioral and academic adjustment among Chinese kindergarten children and tested teacher collectivistic socialization goals as a moderator. Participants were 523 kindergarten children and their mothers and class teachers from Hong Kong, China. The mean age of children was 4.37 years (SD = 0.60), and 53% of them were boys. Using paper-and-pencil questionnaires, class teachers rated children’s social-emotional competence and their own socialization goals, and mothers rated children’s externalizing behaviors and school readiness and provided demographic information. Also, in structured interviews, children completed a Chinese word reading test. Multilevel models indicated that, controlling for child gender and age, mother age and education, and teacher experience of teaching, the class average of child social-emotional competence – which indicated the overall social-emotional climate of the classroom – was linked negatively to child externalizing behaviors and positively to child school readiness and Chinese word reading ability. Moreover, children who scored higher on social-emotional competence – compared to their own class average (i.e., their everyday companions) – scored lower on externalizing behaviors and higher on school readiness. There was no evidence of the moderating role of teacher socialization goals, however. Practice or Policy: Findings pointed to the utility of using class-wide initiatives to promote the overall classroom climate and using child-specific activities to promote individual social-emotional development. Copyright © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.