Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41688547›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2026

Caregiver mental health is associated with early childhood language outcomes and perception bias in rural China.

Qi Jiang, Yiwei Qian, Tianli Feng, Mengmei Du, Hanwen Zhang, Evelyn Zhang, Sarah-Eve Dill, Yue Ma, Scott Rozelle

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Article in Scientific reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Qi JiangSchool of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Yiwei QianResearch Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. qianyw@swufe.edu.cn.
Tianli FengStanford Center on China's Economy and Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Mengmei DuSchool of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Hanwen ZhangStanford Center on China's Economy and Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Evelyn ZhangStanford Center on China's Economy and Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Sarah-Eve DillDepartment of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Yue MaStanford Center on China's Economy and Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Scott RozelleStanford Center on China's Economy and Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Language development and the home language environment during early childhood are critical for long-term child outcomes. Caregiver mental health may influence early language outcomes directly, but it can also introduce perception bias, which refers to the discrepancies between caregiver self-assessments and the actual status of child language outcomes. This study examines the associations between caregiver mental health symptoms and (1) child language development and home language environment, and (2) caregiver perception bias in self-report assessments of child language development and home language environment. The study recruited 137 rural Chinese households with children aged 16-24 months. Objective measures of child language development and the home language environment were collected using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) technology. Caregiver perception biases were measured by the discrepancies between the objective and caregiver self-report measurements. Results show that caregiver anxiety and stress symptoms were linked to poor child language development, while symptoms of depression and anxiety were associated with less stimulating home language environment. Caregivers with depressive and anxiety symptoms tended to overestimate their children's language development, and those with depressive symptoms also overestimated their own verbal inputs. These findings call for caution when implementing self-report assessments of early childhood development.

Indexed as

CaregiversChild LanguageLanguage DevelopmentMental HealthAdultAnxietyChild, PreschoolChinaDepressionFemaleHumansInfantMalePerceptionRural PopulationCaregiver mental healthEarly childhood language developmentEarly childhood language environmentLanguage environment analysis (LENA)Rural china

Identifiers

PMID41688547
PMCPMC12982518

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