Research issues

The KIT database, which is designed on the basis of the ecological system theory and the life course perspective, has three research issues:

• 1. To construct a local instrument for children in Taiwan to measure their development of cognition, language, social-emotion, and physical/motor skills; also, it is created to explore children’s family and child care experiences;
• 2. To collect information about children’s cognition, language, social-emotional development, physical/motor development, families/child care experiences, and children’s changes over time. The KIT project intends to:
  • (1) Inquire into how children in Taiwan develop in childhood in terms of cognition, language, social-emotion, physical/motor skills as well as how fast these changes happen;
  • (2) Answer questions about the relationships between children’s cognition, language, social-emotional development, and physical/motor development;
  • (3) Investigate children’s family/child care experiences and their changes at various points of time;
  • (4) Examine how differences in family/child care experiences relate to children's development.
• 3. To identify the impacts that family experiences and child care experiences have on children, including:
  • (1) How these two different kinds of impact complement each other in the process of child development;
  • (2) The Matthew Effect that these two kinds of impact have on child development.