Recent years have witnessed increasing attention to early childhood education and care as a foundation for children's successful development in school and beyond. The great majority of children in postindustrial societies now attend preschools or daycare, making this setting a major part of their culturally constructed developmental niches. Although an extensive literature demonstrates the importance of parental involvement or engagement in their children's schools, relationships between parents and their children's preschools have received scant attention in the research literature. This paper aims to address that gap through a mixed-methods cross-cultural study of parents and preschools in four Western countries: Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and the United States. Following an introduction to national systems of preschool in each country, parents' involvement and ideas about the family-school relationship are presented, drawing from parental diaries and from semistructured interviews (n = 110). Results indicate areas of cross-cultural similarity but also some differences, especially between the U.S. sample and the three European samples. Discussion addresses the question of how preschools and parents can work together to create optimal developmental niches for their young children. The authors also suggest that parent-preschool relationships deserve greater attention by both researchers and program developers.

中文翻译：

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父母，学前班和幼儿的发展Ni：四种西方文化的研究

近年来，目睹了对幼儿教育和照料的日益重视，这是儿童在学校及以后成功发展的基础。工业后社会中的绝大多数儿童现在都上学前班或托儿所，这使他们在文化上发展的壁ni中占了很大一部分。尽管大量文献证明了父母参与或参与孩子的学校的重要性，但是研究文献中很少关注父母与孩子的学龄前儿童之间的关系。本文旨在通过对四个西方国家（意大利，西班牙，荷兰和美国）的父母和学龄前儿童进行混合方法的跨文化研究来解决这一差距。在介绍了每个国家的国家学前教育系统之后，通过父母日记和半结构式访谈（n = 110），介绍了父母的参与和有关家庭与学校关系的想法。结果显示出跨文化相似性的领域，但也存在一些差异，尤其是在美国样本和三个欧洲样本之间。讨论解决了学龄前儿童和父母如何共同努力为他们的幼儿创造最佳发展ni的问题。作者还建议，研究人员和程序开发人员都应更加重视父母与学龄前儿童的关系。结果显示出跨文化相似性的领域，但也存在一些差异，尤其是在美国样本和三个欧洲样本之间。讨论解决了学龄前儿童和父母如何共同努力为他们的幼儿创造最佳发展ni的问题。作者还建议，研究人员和程序开发人员都应更加重视父母与学龄前儿童的关系。结果显示出跨文化相似性的领域，但也存在一些差异，尤其是在美国样本和三个欧洲样本之间。讨论解决了学龄前儿童和父母如何共同努力为他们的幼儿创造最佳发展ni的问题。作者还建议，研究人员和程序开发人员都应更加重视父母与学龄前儿童的关系。